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Transferred from the Library 
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Library for use therein under 
Sec. 69, Copyright law, 1908. 

Copyright, igog 
By H. M. Caldwell Co. 

Copyright, ign 
By H. M. Caldwell Co. 



Electrotyped and Printed by 
THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



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MAHS»B&U5D fROU PUBLIC LIBRAF' 



CONTENTS 

Foreword. 

The Universal Mind. 
The Divinity of Man. 
The Powers and Possibilities of the Sub- 
conscious Mind. 
Faith as a Vital Force. 
The Law of Suggestion. 
Auto - Suggestion. 
Mind and Medicine. 
Physical Wholeness, .* 
Awakening Latent, Mental Powers. 
The Achievement of Character. 
The Conquest of Fear and Worry. 
The Psychology of Prayer. 
Spiritual Consciousness. 
The Rediscovery of Jesus. 



FOREWORD 

We are living to-day in the midst of 
a great religious movement that is the 
more interesting because it seems to 
have been so spontaneous. It is not 
to be confused with the New Theo- 
logical Movement. This latter has 
proceeded from the schools, from the 
scholars and the theologians. The 
movement to which I refer has come 
from the laity, from the rank and file 
of the people; it is not a product of the 
schools. Wherever you go to-day you 
will find groups of people who are read- 
ing and talking of the spiritual life, 
people that you are surprised to find 
interested in the subject. Sometimes 
the books they are reading and the 
5 



FOREWORD 

language they use seem rather fan- 
tastic, and to the critic even absurd; 
but, nevertheless, it must be honestly 
admitted that this literature which is 
in the hands of so many people to-day, 
and these conversations which may be 
heard in so many different quarters, 
are essentially idealistic and optimistic. 
We are told that the nineteenth cen- 
tury was materialistic; if that be so, 
then certainly the dawning of this 
twentieth century gives promise of be- 
ing a spiritual, perhaps even a mystical 
age. Men like Renan and Paulsen, 
who stood as prophets in their genera- 
tion, predicted the time not far dis- 
tant when there should be a new form 
of religion, and it would almost seem 
as if these predictions were being 
realized in this great popular move- 
ment of our time. This movement 
presents various phases, and has found 
expression in many different organiza- 



FOREWORD 

tions. There is the Christian Science 
Church, now a full fledged organiza- 
tion with its magnificent church edifices 
scattered throughout the country, and 
its hundreds of thousands of adherents. 
There is Mental Science, with its multi- 
tude of students to be found every- 
where. There are many " Meta- 
physical Healing " organizations also 
coming under this same head. There 
is the phenomenon of Faith Cure which 
is constantly expressing itself anew 
from generation to generation. There 
is the New Thought Movement, the 
phrase which I have selected to stand 
for the general movement of thought 
in this direction, and there are New 
Thought study classes in every com- 
munity of any size. And then there is, 
latest of all, the Emmanuel Church 
Movement with headquarters in Bos- 
ton and numerous branches springing 
up all over the country. No one is 
7 



FOREWORD 

in a position to rightly interpret the 
significance of these modern cults, 
until he recognizes that New Thought, 
Metaphysical Healing, Mental Science, 
Christian Science, Faith Cure, the 
Emmanuel Movement, are all varying 
phases of a deep underlying movement 
of our age. 

When one investigates this subject, 
he is surprised to find how rapidly its 
literature has grown. The writers in 
this field are legion, — people like 
Ralph Waldo Trine, Charles Brodie 
Patterson, Henry Wood, Horace 
Fletcher, Horatio Dresser, Edward Car- 
penter, Ursula Gesterfeld and a literal 
host of other writers less well known, 
men and women whose books or pam- 
phlets, all deal with some phase of this 
New Thought Movement. In many 
of our bookstores I have been told in 
each instance that the " best seller " 
next to the latest novel was the New 
8 



FOREWORD 

Thought literature; and I know of 
several cases where religious book- 
stores, very much against their in- 
clination, have been obliged to clear 
off two or three sections of their 
shelves and replace the older theologi- 
cal books with New Thought literature; 
because, as they say, " The people 
demand it, and if we do not have this 
literature for which they inquire, we 
simply lose their patronage." This 
literature has found its way into multi- 
tudes of homes of those who are out- 
side of all churches and into homes of 
multitudes who are active members of 
the established churches of the land. 
Then there are various monthly pub- 
lications, of greater or lesser import, 
each with its own circle of readers. 
The amount of literature on the sub- 
ject is tremendously significant, when 
one stops to think of how young this 
movement really is, and of how it has 
9 



FOREWORD 

proceeded not from the schools or the 
scholars, but from the laity. 

The number of followers of this 
movement, is also a most significant 
fact. I do not refer alone to the people 
who have withdrawn from the churches 
where they have been members for 
many years, and have joined another 
organization such as a Christian Sci- 
ence Church, but I mean the people 
who read this literature, who have 
accepted more or less of its teachings, 
who are practising in their daily lives 
many of its principles; the people 
whose conversation betrays the fact 
that they are familiar with the line of 
thought, with the ideals, with the con- 
victions that underlie this New 
Thought Movement. I have been sur- 
prised to find travelling salesmen in 
the Pullman sleeping cars talking about 
this matter among themselves and 
reading books along this line. I have 
10 



FOREWORD 

been amazed, in offices of certain busi- 
ness men whom I thought forever 
immune against religious literature of 
any kind, to see lying upon their 
desks little booklets bearing unmis- 
takably the ear marks of the New 
Thought philosophy. I have known 
practical business men more than once, 
who have found their greatest pleasure 
in buying in large quantities and send- 
ing to various friends, books of this 
class which have been extremely help- 
ful in their own lives, and they simply 
desire to pass the good word along. 

Now it would seem high time that 
a movement that has created so volu- 
minous a literature, that has attracted 
to itself so numerous a following, that 
has already formed its organizations 
and has its study classes all over the 
country, should be regarded as worthy 
of serious and thoughtful consideration. 
The time has gone by when the pulpit 
11 



FOREWORD 

or the press should be content to in- 
dulge in mere criticism or ridicule, 
least of all, in wholesale condemnation. 
How bitter has been the criticism 
which Christian Science has received; 
how preachers and physicians and 
journalists and humorists and writers 
of every class have simply vied with 
one another in finding fault with, or 
making fun of this modern cult! I 
confess frankly, for myself, that I find 
it utterly impossible to accept the 
metaphysics or the philosophy so- 
called, of Mrs. Eddy's teachings; but 
here is the fact, that in all honesty 
we are bound to admit; — that in this 
movement with all its strange philo- 
sophical contradictions, with its faulty 
metaphysics and often unscientific sci- 
ence, there is a power, a life, a vital 
faith, and men and women are blessed 
and made happier by it. No honest 
or intelligent person can deny the fact 
12 



FOREWORD 

to-day. When we see a hard-headed, 
prosaic business man who has appar- 
ently never been influenced at all by 
the sentiments of religion, undergoing 
a sort of new conversion and becoming 
a fervent and ardent Christian; when 
we see an ailing wife whom physicians 
have not been able to help, finally 
restored, apparently to perfect health 
and physical comfort; when we find 
a victim of some evil habit enabled to 
cast off the shackles that have bound 
him and become once more a free man ; 
when we find the home which was hell- 
ish in its atmosphere, taking into its 
midst this belief and becoming trans- 
formed literally into a heavenly place, 
we should be frank and glad to admit 
that there is some truth and power in 
the movement. It is not strange that 
new truths should first appear under 
the form of crudity or extravagance, 
or sometimes even of absurdity. As 
13 



FOREWORD 

a matter of fact this is just the way 
that all new ideas first made their 
appearance in the world. This is the 
history of the beginnings of all the 
sciences, and then as time went on 
that which was true persisted and the 
absurdity or the crudity, the extrava- 
gance or the error, has gradually fallen 
away and disappeared. 

If we are wise we will not be so swift 
in our condemnation, because a truth 
is expressed in a crude, or even in an 
absurd form. Our chief endeavor 
should be, not to find fault with a 
movement that has gained such magni- 
tude and influence, but if possible, to 
find out the truth that it contains, sift 
the error from the truth, and thus 
make ourselves the possessors of the 
living principle that lies at its heart. 

This is the aim, however imper- 
fectly realized, of the chapters that 
follow. I leave to others the task of 
14 



FOREWORD 

criticising or condemning Christian 
Science or Mental Science or Meta- 
physical Healing or the Emmanuel 
Movement. I am endeavoring, as far 
as possible, to get at the principles 
underlying all these kindred phases of 
thought, from which their real truth 
and vitality proceed. There is a 
great difference between a fact, and 
the theory that explains that fact. The 
history of thought is full of the ex- 
periences of men who have attempted 
to explain by their theories certain 
facts, and yet as time has elapsed their 
first theories have been exchanged for 
truer and more accurate explanations. 
As we seek to comprehend these various 
phases of the New Thought Move- 
ment, while we admit the fact of the 
great good that is done, the lives that 
are transformed, the homes that are 
made happier, the pain that is relieved, 
the diseases — at least of a certain 
15 



FOREWORD 

type — that are cured, at the same 
time we may not be quite satisfied 
with the theories which have been put 
forth to explain these facts. As we 
begin to study seriously the New 
Thought Movement we have as an aid 
to a better understanding of its phe- 
nomena, all the wealth of the newer 
Psychology with its wonderful dis- 
closures. We understand to-day as 
we could not have understood a genera- 
tion ago, the wondrous operations of 
the sub-conscious or the subjective 
mind; the new meaning and the pos- 
sible workings of the law of Suggestion 
from without, or of Auto-Suggestion 
from within; and we know the im- 
mense influence that mental environ- 
ment has upon the individual. This 
great religious movement, as I have 
phrased it, is on another side just as 
truly a great scientific movement. The 
religious spirit which lies at the heart 
16 



FOREWORD 

of the movement, is at last grasping 
hands with the true scientific spirit, 
as it is making clear and plain, the 
possibilities of mind and its power 
over the individual. I recently cut 
from the columns of the " New York 
Times " this little clipping, which only 
emphasizes the great need which clearly 
exists, of helping to make clear and 
meaningful the underlying truth or 
principle of these various phases of 
thought. It is headed " To Explain 
Mind Cures." 

" ' A scientific exposition of mind 
cure, or psychotherapy, is about to be 
given to the American public along 
university extension lines in treatises 
which will set forth the underlying 
truth of Christian Science, Mental 
Healing, Faith cure, New Thought, 
and the Emmanuel Movement,' W. B. 
Parker of 30 Church Street announced 
yesterday. ' These will be by the most 
17 



FOREWORD 

prominent scientists and physicians 
making investigations along these lines 
in this country and abroad. Of the at- 
titude in this country to mental science 
Dr. Richard C. Cabot of Harvard Uni- 
versity, who is to be one of the 
writers, says: 

" 'Scientific, rational mind cure (mind 
cure is the English for psychotherapy) 
has been used in America in a system- 
atic way only within the last decade; 
American physicians fought shy of it 
for a long time. They had reasons for 
this, but not, in my opinion, good rea- 
sons. One of the most important of 
these reasons lay in the fact that Chris- 
tian Scientists and other unorthodox 
schools of healing were already in the 
field and in competition with medical 



men. 



To suggest in any way that there 
might be truth in these foolish and 
unreasonable systems has seemed im- 

18 



FOREWORD 

possible to the American physician. 
In Europe, on the other hand, where 
there has been no movement among the 
laity, where psychotherapy has been 
wholly in the hands of the physicians, 
its scientific and reasonable sides have 
been developed, while we in America 
have sat by and watched the antics 
and extravagances of Mrs. Eddy and 
her school with disgust or with horror, 
but without any steady or consistent 
attempt to find out the truth be- 
hind their fallacies and absurdities) 
or to apply this truth in our own 
way. 

This is simply indicative of the 
general tendency to-day on the part 
of scientific men, not only to recognize 
the truths that there may be in the 
New Thought Movement, but to sepa- 
rate them from the extravagances and 
absurdities with which they have been 
heretofore so largely associated in this 
19 



FOREWORD 

country. In my work I am con- 
stantly meeting men and women who 
have come into contact, through an 
experience, personal or otherwise, with 
the workings of New Thought in 
some one of its various phases; they 
have been impressed with the power 
of the truth expressed, and yet 
they have not been able to explain 
it; they do not see just how this 
New Thought fits into their sys- 
tem of religious beliefs; they are 
confused and uncertain, and so are 
turning here and there to find, if pos- 
sible, some light upon the subject. 
It is for the sake of furnishing to all 
such whatever of light may have 
come to me in the search for truth, 
that this book is given to the public. 
In most general terms, what seem 
to be the essential elements of this 
movement? I am dealing now not 
with its separate phases, but with the 
20 



FOREWORD 

principle which underlies the Move- 
ment as a whole. The chapters which 
follow take up the separate principles 
and show their application to the 
curing of disease, to the transforma- 
tion of moral character, to the develop- 
ment of latent mental possibilities, 
and to the enlargement of one's own 
spiritual life. 

On its religious side, the New 
Thought Movement finds its key- 
note in the words of the Apostle Paul, 
" For in Him we live and move and 
have our being." Its teachings in- 
volve the honest, earnest and per- 
sistent endeavor to realize the truth 
of these words, the application of this 
principle in a more determined way 
than it ever has been applied, to every 
day experience and to every condition 
of human life, in order that men and 
women may realize not on Sundays or 
in moments of especial religious fer- 
21 



FOREWORD 

vour only, but in every moment of 
life that " In Him we live and move 
and have our being." This is the 
religious significance of the New 
Thought Movement. What does the 
Emmanuel Movement mean? What 
are they trying to do in that old 
Church in Boston? They are just re- 
minding people of God, in an age when 
men have well nigh forgotten Him 
in any real or vital sense. This is not 
a new truth, but it is a new applica- 
tion of the old truth. It is an attempt 
to make men see what is involved in 
the fact. If the Apostle was right when 
he said, " In Him we live and move and 
have our being," then what follows for 
my physical life, for my mental life, for 
my moral life, for my spiritual being? 
It is a new realization of what has 
always been true, and a pressing of this 
truth home upon the hearts and lives 
of men. 

22 



FOREWORD 

On the scientific side the New 
Thought Movement accepts the dis- 
closures of the wonderful power of 
mind over matter, of mind over the 
body, of mind over physical condi- 
tions. It is not implied that the 
psychologist of to-day draws the line 
hard and fast, and states in just so 
many words what mind is able to do 
with body and what it is not able to 
do, but the psychologists and our 
leading physicians are recognizing that 
very many, if not most of the ills to 
which flesh is heir, proceed from dis- 
ordered mental states or are due to 
abnormal mental conditions, and that 
instead of doctoring from outside, the 
thing needed is to get down to the 
root of the trouble, to get back to the 
source of the disorder, to set right the 
mental conditions, to create a different 
mental atmosphere, and that only 
thus can harmony be brought out of the 



FOREWORD 

existing discord. This is the scientific 
side of it. Few realize how volumi- 
nous the literature is upon simply 
this phase of the subject. I have 
upon my desk a score of books, most 
of them published within the last five 
years, dealing with this subject strictly 
from the scientific standpoint; books 
written by professors in German uni- 
versities, by leading physicians in Eng- 
land and in this country, all recognizing 
the tremendous part played by the 
mind in the cure of at least certain 
kinds of diseases and in the transforma- 
tion of moral character. It is a mistake 
to think that the New Thought Move- 
ment confines itself to the cure of 
bodily ills. While it lays emphasis 
upon the power of the mind to accom- 
plish wonders in the physical body, it 
goes much deeper than that and shows 
man how mental powers can be de- 
veloped and moral weaknesses over- 
24 



FOREWORD 

come, how conditions in the home, 
which have produced a suspicious 
or embittered atmosphere, can be 
changed, and how a man's relations 
in his business can be so altered that 
things will run more smoothly and he 
himself be more successful. It has to 
do with the whole range of a man's 
life. It affects him in all the domain of 
his wonderfully complex nature. If it 
has the actual influence upon the man, 
that these leaders claim it may have, it 
may transform him from center to 
circumference. The curing of bodily 
ills is one phase of the working of the 
principle; but the curing of the mind, 
the awakening of the soul, the en- 
larging of the horizon and making 
strong and symmetrical the moral and 
spiritual nature, — these are things 
which are just as possible in the 
domain of the working of this truth. 
The New Thought Movement stands 
25 



FOREWORD 

in the clearest sense for an applied 
Christianity. It is in no sense anti- 
Christian. It certainly is not un- 
christian. It takes the fundamental 
teachings of Jesus Christ as they apply 
to practical life, to daily conduct, to 
actual living, and sets them forth with 
an emphasis that, unfortunately, the 
pulpit has not always given to them. 
The prevailing tendency in the pul- 
pit, has been to spend too much time 
upon the discussion of theological 
subjects, dogmas and creeds, and 
altogether too little time upon the 
practical questions of daily living that 
make up the actual conduct of man. 
The idea that fear, worry and anxiety 
are sins and can be overcome, is as 
old as the teaching of Jesus when He 
said, " Consider the lilies of the field, 
how they grow, they toil not neither 
do they spin, yet your Heavenly Father 
cares for them. Why take ye thought 



FOREWORD 

for the morrow? Why are ye anxious 
about meat and drink and raiment? " 
Jesus is seeking to have man see that 
he can and ought to cast out of his life 
forever these dread feelings, fear and 
worry and anxiety, the arch-enemies 
of happiness, peace and power. But 
the pulpit has been discussing the 
Inspiration of the Bible or the Trinity, 
the Incarnation, or the Atonement, 
while the practical needs of men's 
lives have too often been left unsatis- 
fied. Why have so many people been 
attracted to Christian Science or other 
similar organizations? It has not been 
because of the metaphysics of Mrs. 
Eddy; it has not been because of the 
philosophy that is put forth to explain 
the phenomena or the facts as wit- 
nessed in these various organizations. 
The last thing that anybody accepts 
in a religion is its dogmas. The meta- 
physics of Buddhism, for example, are 
n 



FOREWORD 

an absolute negation of everything 
that we suppose goes to make religion 
— denial of God, denial of the soul, 
denial of immortality, denial of the 
worth-whileness of life, — and yet in 
spite of the metaphysics, Buddha still 
receives the adoration of multitudes of 
people, who find inspiration and power 
in his life and in his example. People 
do not embrace religion because of its 
theology or because of its metaphysics. 
That is the last thing they embrace. 
People accept a religion when they see 
it doing something practical, when it 
yields visible fruits in life and char- 
acter. In the long run that religion 
has the largest following which is 
doing the most practical good, regard- 
less of its metaphysics; and that re- 
ligion has the smallest following which 
is doing the least practical good, re- 
gardless of its theology. There is an 
increasing number who admit, whether 
28 



FOREWORD 

they can explain it satisfactorily or not, 
a power that is getting results, that is 
doing for them what the conventional 
religion of the Church has failed to do; 
working transformations in their lives 
and in their homes, that the teachings 
of the Pulpit have failed to accomplish 
thus far. Eventually men believe the 
things which are most useful, most 
practical and most beneficial. This 
is what man really wants to believe, 
and this surely is one of the chief tests 
of Truth, viz. : — whether it does do 
good, whether it can accomplish re- 
sults, whether it does bring things to 
pass. " By their fruits," said Jesus, 
" ye shall know them." 

A man who has been born and 
brought up in the atmosphere of the 
Church and who has been a professing 
Christian all his life, said to me recently, 
" You are telling us to accept Jesus 
Christ, to have faith in Christ, and we 
29 



FOREWORD 

do come to Him, and as best we know 
how we try to have faith in Him; and 
then you say, in the words of Paul, 
' Now work out your own salvation.' 
But it is a great task that you impose; 
I may have faith in Jesus Christ but I 
am conscious of turmoil, of struggle and 
conflict within; I am conscious that 
there is little or none of ' the peace of 
God that passeth all understanding ' 
filling my soul; I am conscious that I 
have a temper that gets the best of me, 
or an appetite that I find it hard to 
handle; I have faith in Jesus Christ, 
but you tell me, ' Work out your own 
salvation, build yourself up into the 
Christ-like character.' And I ask you 
very naturally, ' How am I to do it? ' 
That is what you ministers do not tell 
us. How are we going to become 
Christ-like, when we know ourselves 
to be what we are to-day? ' : I think it 
is a just criticism on much of the 



FOREWORD 

preaching and teaching of the Church, 
and reveals one reason for the wide- 
spread influence of the New Thought 
Movement. It does try to tell people 
how they can conquer this weakness 
and overcome that fault, and how 
they can apply the law so as to insure 
progress toward the Christ-like char- 
acter. This is really what we want to 
know; this is what we go to church 
for; this ought to be the prime busi- 
ness of the preacher everywhere, to 
help men and women see how they 
can build within themselves and others 
the perfect character. 

This New Thought Movement is 
also surcharged with the spirit that 
looks for the good in everybody and in 
everything; it minimizes the bad and 
the evil; it seeks to forget all that is 
ugly and hateful, all that is selfish or 
sinful, and it is constantly striving to 
look beyond and behind these things 
31 



FOREWORD 

for the better elements, for the nobler 
part that is to be found in every human 
life; and so it is full of the spirit of 
encouragement and hope. In other 
words, its constant method is positive 
and constructive rather than negative 
and destructive. Would that all men 
might catch this spirit, so that we could 
look beyond the bad in other people 
and see only the good, so that we could 
forget to criticise and seek only to en- 
courage, so that we could put away the 
ugly and the unbeautiful things of life 
and not parade them in our homes or 
before our children, but let only the 
good, the beautiful and the true things 
of life be their constant inspiration! 

The New Thought spirit inculcates 
only the broadest charity and the ut- 
most sympathy. Again you say that 
this is not new. No, it is not new. 
It is just as old as the sayings of Jesus. 
But it is newly applied. It teaches us, 
32 



FOREWORD 

for example, that when we cherish the 
feelings of anger or hatred, or envy, or 
jealousy, we are not only hurting the 
person towards whom we cherish these 
feelings, but we are hurting ourselves. 
It tells us that thoughts are living 
things, and that when we think these 
evil or unkind thoughts of other people, 
we are digging a great gulf between 
ourselves and these other lives, which 
never can be bridged. It teaches men 
that it is wrong for them to judge 
harshly and unkindly. It tells men 
constantly and all the time, " Your 
own will come to you, as sure as God is 
God." If you send out good cheer, 
good cheer comes back; if you send 
out sympathy and love, sympathy and 
love will come back to you. What you 
think, what your will creates within 
you goes forth unseen but most surely 
on its errand, and evokes in other lives 
the similar thing. We all know this to 
33 



FOREWORD 

be true; but because of the explana- 
tion given, a new emphasis is placed 
on the reasons for being sympathetic 
and charitable, kind and brotherly 
always; and so we begin to enter 
more deeply into the real spirit of 
human brotherhood and the genuine 
spirit of kindly helpfulness one toward 
another. 

In the last place, the spirit of this 
movement emphasizes the fact that the 
truest way to aid the body, the surest 
method by which abnormal physical 
or moral conditions can be overcome, is 
through spiritual development, by get- 
ting the mind right, by creating the 
right atmosphere within, by enlarging 
the spiritual horizon of one's life. In 
this way only can the highest results 
be attained, both within and without. 

In a single sentence, the essential 
truth in the New Thought Movement 
is, that the real home of man is within. 
34 



FOREWORD 

This is where he really lives. Here is 
the source of the atmosphere that 
makes the home beautiful or helpful — 
not the rugs or pictures or furniture — 
but the inner life. This is the source 
of the power in your life that makes 
you a strong and influential personality. 
It does not depend upon external con- 
ditions, but upon what you are within. 
The New Thought emphasizes the 
profound truth, which has been the 
teaching of idealism in every day and 
generation, that in the inner conscious- 
ness, in the will, in the actual thought 
of the individual, lie the real sources 
of power, of health, of true progress. 
The teaching of the New Thought 
Movement, in its essentials, is simply 
the realization, the carrying out, the 
deeper and more detailed application of 
Jesus' words when He said, " The 
kingdom of God is within you." 



35 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 
OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 




T was Tolstoi who said some 
time ago, that the trouble 
with this age of ours is that 
it has lost the sense of God. 
Multitudes of people believe in God 
to-day, in fact nearly every intelligent 
man and woman believes in God; but 
belief in God is vastly different from 
realizing God; and whether a man's 
belief in God is of any vital value, 
depends, of course, upon what his 
belief in God really is. As history re- 
veals, progress in religion has always 
gone hand in hand with the improve- 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

ment that has taken place in man's 
notions of God. As one by one the 
crude, narrow, and superstitious ideas 
concerning God have fallen away, we 
find that the religious life of man has 
been making true and actual progress. 
But to-day it would seem, almost 
more than at any other time in the 
past history of the race, men are crying 
out for a real God, — not a god of 
theology, not a god of dogmas or doc- 
trines, not a god of theory, — but a 
God who can be realized, who there- 
fore becomes an actual power in every- 
day life. 

The prevailing temper of the minds 
of men and women to-day, both in- 
side the Church and out, is one of 
unrest and dissatisfaction; they are 
more or less conscious that they are 
not getting out of religion all that they 
might. Many of us have that feeling; 
and not a few clergymen often go home 
4 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

Sunday nights, with the same unrest 
uppermost. We wonder if we are 
getting from our religion — and that is 
only another way of asking, if we are 
getting out of our supposed relations 
with God — as much as we have the 
right to expect. If religion simply 
means attending church services, lis- 
tening to the choir and the preacher, 
or taking part in some of the various 
activities of Church life; if religion 
brings to daily experience only the 
instruction as to life's programme but 
not the divine strength to carry out that 
programme, only the description of 
life's ideals but not the dynamic power 
by which these ideals may be realized 
in character, then we are justified in 
asking whether we are getting out of 
our religion, whether our beliefs in 
God are yielding us, all we have the 
right to expect. To-day, as in every 
age, earnest men are crying out, just 
V 5 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

as the old French iconoclast Diderot 
cried out to the Church of his day, 
that was stifling truth and binding it 
fast with fetters, " Release your God," 
or in other words, " Enlarge your con- 
ception of God." This is the great 
demand that the thinking world is 
making of religion to-day. 

The key-note on the religious side 
of the New Thought movement, — 
and I use this title to describe the 
underlying principles, of which Chris- 
tian Science, Mental Healing, Em- 
manuel Church movement, and vari- 
ous New Thought centres, are but dif- 
ferent expressions, — the foundation 
truth underlying this great religious 
as well as psychological movement 
of our day, is found in the words 
of Paul, " For in Him we live and 
move and have our being." In other 
words, the religious inspiration of 
the New Thought movement is 
6 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

found in its enlarged conception of 
God. 

We are all familiar with the tradi- 
tional notion of God that has generally 
held sway throughout Christian his- 
tory. We owe it in part to Judea, in 
part to Greek philosophy, in part to 
art and poetry, and to the philosophizing 
of the early Church fathers. All these 
different streams have contributed to- 
wards this traditional notion of God. 
In a single word, it was the idea of a 
God, who was a sort of " magnified 
man," who sat somewhere afar off, 
outside and apart from the universe, 
on a stupendous throne. This God 
in some far distant past had created 
the universe out of nothing instanter, 
by direct fiat, much as a man would 
make a machine. And then, having 
set " the machine " going, He turned 
His back upon it, in " sublime indif- 
ference." Whenever this God might 
7 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

choose, He reached down, and in some 
miraculous way, arbitrarily or capri- 
ciously, made changes in His machinery, 
or manifested His power in startling, 
spectacular ways to the children of 
men. His whole relation to men was a 
relation of mediation. He could never 
come into direct contact with the human 
soul. To quote: " God is a being of 
an essentially different nature from man, 
between whom and Him there is no 
kinship; so that we may not argue 
concerning Him from our notions of 
goodness; so that we may not really 
know Him by the study of nature; so 
that we are absolutely dependent for 
any and all knowledge of Him upon an 
external, miraculous revelation." Some- 
thing like this has been the traditional 
notion of God. This is just where 
the great conflict between theology 
and science has come in. The argu- 
ment of science with theology has been 
8 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

against this idea of God, a conception 
which has long been, to the scientific 
mind, absolutely unthinkable. 

But in this wonderful new century, 
we have been gradually enlarging our 
conception of the Deity. We do not 
think of God in the terms our fathers 
employed. He is no longer this Mag- 
nified Being apart from the universe, 
sitting on the great white throne, who 
only occasionally and then arbitrarily 
or capriciously, expresses His life or 
reveals His will, in the universe which 
He has created. Our thought of God 
to-day is of a Supreme Power, back of, 
underlying, and in all things. God is 
the Infinite, the Illimitable, the Eter- 
nal, the Unchangeable Being. He is, 
He always was, and He always shall 
be. He is Omnipotent; that is, the 
Being of all Power. He is Omniscient; 
that is, the All-knowing and All-seeing 
Being. He is Omnipresent; that is, 
9 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

the Being everywhere present. He is 
Omni -good; that is, the absolutely 
Righteous and All-loving Father. These 
are not new terms used to describe 
God. They are old terms. But what 
we need to see is, that the revelations 
of the newer thinking of the last gen- 
eration, have put into these old terms 
a new content, which has made them 
tremendously vital, whereas for most 
of us they have been merely abstrac- 
tions, containing little or no real mean- 
ing. So we may think of God to-day 
in terms prevalent in the scientific 
or philosophical world, as the Uni- 
versal Mind, the Universal Substance, 
the Ultimate Reality, or the Soul of 
the Universe. The name is nothing, 
if only we are conscious of the Reality. 
I imagine most of us will prefer to use 
the old familiar name of God, putting 
into it the new content and deeper 
meaning which is coming to us through 
10 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

the various channels of present-day 
thought. 

As one of the results of the investi- 
gations and discoveries of modern sci- 
ence, we have come to see, as the pre- 
vious generations never could have un- 
derstood, that this universe in which 
we live is, in point of time, an eternal 
universe. The old idea, that four 
thousand and four years before Christ, 
God created the worlds, has disap- 
peared from the thinking of intelligent 
people. As we study geology, and 
examine the strata in which are found 
fossil remains of living organisms, — 
strata in some parts of the world twenty 
miles in thickness, — we do not wonder 
that the geologists infer a period of 
time approximating a hundred million 
years, during which such deposits have 
been slowly made. Our later knowl- 
edge discloses the fact, that the still 
lower Azoic strata, which were sup- 
11 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

posed to be absolutely devoid of any 
remains of life, are filled with micro- 
scopic fossils. As fresh discoveries 
constantly reveal new stretches of time, 
the geologist comes back from his 
investigations with the stupendous state- 
ment, that not four thousand or a 
hundred thousand or a million or a 
hundred million, but as near as the 
imagination of the scientist can figure 
it out at all, this world of ours has had 
an existence of at least a thousand 
million years. Can we realize what 
that means ? A thousand million years 
during which our planet has been in 
existence, not to mention other planets 
known to be vastly older ! It practi- 
cally means for us an Eternal universe. 
But not only in point of time, but of 
space as well, the idea of the universe 
has been immeasurably enlarged by 
the discoveries of man. We are told 
that with the naked eye we are able 
12 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

to discern about two thousand stars 
in the heavens ; with an opera glass we 
can see, perhaps, one hundred times 
as many; but with the latest and best 
improved telescope we are enabled 
to look leagues beyond, into depths of 
space that fairly baffle the imagination. 
Our American astronomers, like Pro- 
fessors Dolbear and Newcombe, tell us, 
as the result of astronomical observa- 
tion, that unquestionably there are in 
the universe one hundred million worlds. 
The late Royal Astronomer of Ireland, 
in a book published just before his 
death, gives it as his opinion, that there 
are at least thirty million stars or suns, 
each one the centre of a planetary 
system, averaging perhaps ten planets 
apiece; which means, according to his 
estimate, that there are three hundred 
million worlds in this universe, the 
majority of them vastly larger than the 
planet upon which we live. Can we 
13 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

realize what this means, as to our 
conception of the universe in its 
extent in space? Any number of 
illustrations might be given mathe- 
matically, to illustrate the greatness 
of the universe. "If you let the ring 
upon a woman's finger represent the 
orbit of the earth, the nearest fixed 
star would be a mile and a half away, 
and the great body of the starry world 
scores of hundreds of miles beyond 
that." The brain fairly reels, and the 
imagination totters. It is impossible 
for the mind of man to conceive at all 
of such infinite stretches of space. 
Can one conceive of any boundary to 
such a universe, of any line that marks 
its limits in space ? As ex-President 
Hill used to say, the revelations in a 
single drop of water under the micro- 
scope are just as wonderful as is this 
infinite universe over our heads. He 
tells us we can rightly conceive the 
14 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

atoms in a drop of water, as the stars 
and suns of a universe like unto that 
above, — as those stars and suns are 
the atoms of a larger universe. To all 
practical purposes then, our universe 
to-day is an Infinite universe. 

This is not all. We are coming to 
realize that the universe in which we 
live is practically Omnipotent. You 
have stood perhaps by some great 
mountain range, you have climbed 
the Catskills, and looked down those 
precipitous cliffs, and then you have 
tried to realize how infinite the force 
that must have been expended in the 
travail throes of earth, in order to 
produce such mountain peaks. I am 
indebted to Doctor Savage for an il- 
lustration which he somewhere gives. 
If you take a bar of steel, one mile 
square, and place it alongside of the 
Catskills, it would out-tower every one 
of the Catskill peaks; and yet it would 
15 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

take 87,000 of these bars of steel one 
mile square, to represent the power of 
gravitation that holds the moon in its 
orbit as^ it revolves around the earth. 
And what is the moon but just a little 
worn-out asteroid of our planetary 
system ? The electricity that plays in 
the thunder-cloud over our heads — 
how little we know or understand its 
power ! How little it would take of that 
seemingly infinite power to destroy an 
entire planet! The universe in which 
we live is Omnipotent, surcharged with 
power, a power so stupendously great 
that we cannot conceive it. 

But this is not all. Our enlarged 
conception of the universe has brought 
to us a conception, unknown to our 
fathers, of Law and Order. We know 
to-day that everything in this universe 
of God is under the reign of Law ; that 
every crystal is always formed exactly 
and invariably according to the same 
16 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

geometrical pattern; that every seed 
always blossoms out invariably into 
the same flower; that the tiny violet 
droops on its stem, not by accident, 
but according to law. As Tyndall 
says, " the same law that forms the 
tear-drop moulds a planet." It is all 
law. There is no longer any room in 
this universe for caprice, or arbitrary 
will; it is law, it is order throughout, 
from centre to circumference. 

Another thing, still more remarkable, 
to be said about this enlarged idea 
of the universe is that everywhere we 
go we find the clear indications of Life, 
There was a time, when the scientist 
talked a great deal about " dead mat- 
ter." There is no such thing in scien- 
tific thinking to-day as dead matter. 
It is all living matter, absolutely. If 
you hold in your hand certain sub- 
stances, carbon, sulphur, and saltpetre, 
there is nothing especially expressive 
17 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

of energy or force. They are inert. 
If you bring them together you have 
gunpowder. Whence has come the 
power that now exists in this explosive ? 
Did you put it in as you mixed them 
together ? Not at all. Where did it 
come from ? You ask the scientist, and 
he says it is due to " inherent energy." 
What does he mean by that ? Perhaps 
he, himself, does not altogether under- 
stand. The dead matter of former 
times is alive with what is called " points 
of force." I read only recently of 
some German chemists who have been 
experimenting with inorganic matter, 
and have publicly made the announce- 
ment, that they have been able to pro- 
duce living matter out of what seemed 
to be dead matter. They mix oil and 
potash in certain proportions, and the 
result is a substance that resembles, 
in all its movements, the amoeba, one 
of the lowest forms of animal life. If 
18 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

moves about, changes its form, and 
absorbs into itself certain objects, 
rejecting others. The old line of de- 
marcation between organic and in- 
organic, between the living world and 
the dead world, has vanished, and we 
are confronted by the stupendous 
thought, that what we call dead matter 
is alive throughout, not to the thinking 
of the religionist, remember, but to 
that of the scientist as well. Professor 
Dolbear declares that we always find 
life associated with matter, and there 
appears to be good reason for holding 
that every atom is alive. It was Her- 
bert Spencer who said before he died, 
that the conception toward which Nat- 
ural Science is tending, was not a dead 
world of matter, but rather of a uni- 
verse everywhere alive. 

. There is something else to be said 
about this new universe into which we 
have been ushered, which is still more 
19 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

wonderful and startling, and that is, 
that this universe of ours is not only 
living in all its tiniest atoms, but that 
Mind is present everywhere through- 
out the universe. Professor Paulsen, 
of Berlin University, one of the leading 
philosophical and scientific writers of 
the Continent, in one of his recent 
books, argues at great length to show 
that every physical process is always 
accompanied by a psychic process. 
He means that wherever you find 
physical matter, there you will find 
mind present in some form. One of 
the leading scientists in Washington, 
who has studied the subject for years, 
declares that the tiny cell, which is the 
unit of all organisms, is an embodied 
bit of mind ; that what used to be called 
vital, or physiological processes of the 
cell, are now recognized as psychic 
processes; and he goes on to prove, by 
the behaviour of this physical cell, 
20 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

that all functions of the tiny cell must 
proceed from mind. :< In short, that 
the life of a cell must consist solely of 
its mental activities. What has hitherto 
been called the vital and physiological 
processes are in reality psychological 
processes ; and the life of a cell is noth- 
ing more than its mind." We are 
living in a world which is full of life and 
energy, in which there is no such thing 
as dead or lifeless matter, and in which 
we are forced to recognize everywhere 
mental powers and activities. 

Still another fact must be noted 
about this enlarged universe into which 
we have come, — it is a Unity. The 
ancients could not construe the universe 
in terms of unity. They did not dream 
of the unity that we know to exist. 
With the spectroscope we can examine 
the elements of the sun, the moon, and 
stars, and we find that the same ele- 
ments are there that are here. We 
21 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

study the forces of these heavenly bod- 
ies millions of miles removed from us, 
and discover that the same forces, — 
gravitation, heat, light and electricity, 
— operate there just as they do here. 
The same laws prevail there that pre- 
vail here; and wherever man can go, 
wherever he may search, wherever 
his wonderful instruments have been 
able to penetrate, everywhere he finds 
not only law, but the same law; there 
is unity throughout. Water runs down- 
hill here, and it runs down-hill on the 
planet farthest removed. 

There is one more step in our fas- 
cinating journey. As we ponder upon 
the marvellous facts which modern 
science predicates of the universe, grad- 
ually there emerges from our thinking 
the luminous, yet at first startling 
thought: " Then there is no other way 
to think of this universe except as being 
a living Organism" Can we grasp 
22 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

the conception ? The old materialistic 
idea of the universe, as a machine made 
up of physical matter, and run simply 
in accordance with certain physical 
laws, is no longer possible to the re- 
flecting mind, and we are thinking 
to-day of the universe as an Organism, 
alive throughout, surcharged with vital 
energy, throbbing and pulsating with 
the powers of mind from its very centre 
to its farthest circumference; not a 
dead world, not a mechanical world, 
not a world once made by a God who 
sits afar off, but an Organism which 
is living, breathing, and pulsating 
constantly, with this infinite energy, 
this infinite life, this infinite power. 
This is the light that the newer 
thinking of science has thrown upon 
the problem of man's age-long search 
after a real God. No truly religious 
man can fail to be profoundly grateful 
for these divine revelations of science, 
23 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

which are helping immeasurably to 
make God real to countless human 
lives. 

No longer do we look to some dis- 
tant throne to find God. No longer 
do we journey afar through the uni- 
verse to ascertain His dwelling-place. 
We know that if there is a God at all, 
He is this Infinite Spirit that fills the 
universe full of His life, His mind, and 
His energy constantly. The scientist 
and the philosopher to-day, when 
asked for their conception of God, will 
answer, " There is only one concep- 
tion that we can entertain of God, 
viz., He is this Universal Mind, He 
is this Supreme Power that fills the 
universe. He not only once created, 
but He is continually creating; He is 
not only here, but He is everywhere." 
This Infinite Life, this Universal Mind, 
this Soul of the Universe, this God who 
is really pervading and sustaining all 
24 



OE, THE IMMANENT GOD 

that goes to make up this wondrous 
universe, this is what the ' new theolo- 
gian calls the Immanent God; this 
is what the New Thought movement 
calls the Universal Mind. It is the 
God who is conceived of as dwelling 
in His world. According to the old 
German proverb, it is " God sleeping 
in the stone, dreaming in the animal, 
coming to consciousness in man." You 
recall how Wordsworth, in these very 
beautiful lines, gives expression to the 
same thought: 

" I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused; 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns 
And the round ocean and the living air 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts, 
Aid rolls through all things." 

25 



\f 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

In other words, then, the universe 
is God clothed. The universe is " the 
living garment of God;" or, as James 
Martineau declared, " The universe 
which includes and enfolds us round 
is the life dwelling of an Eternal Mind." 
Can we state in still simpler terms this 
tremendous truth ? Let us make the 
attempt. The relation of this Infinite 
Power, or God, to the universe, is the 
same as the relation of man's soul to 
his body. The universe as we see it is 
God's body ; then God is the soul of the 
universe, just as you are the soul of 
your body. Can you lay your finger 
on yourself ? Is your hand, you ? Is 
your foot, you ? Is your brain, you ? 
Where are you ? Can any one localize 
you in your body ? You pervade your 
body through and through. When you 
are looking intently at some object, 
to all practical purposes you are in 
your eyes. When you are consciously 
26 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

working with your hands, to all in- 
tents and purposes you are in your 
hands. You are immanent in your 
body. There is not one atom of your 
body where you are not — but still, you 
are not your body. The time is com- 
ing when you will surrender your body 
to the forces of dissolution, but you 
will not perish. Now God is the soul 
of the universe, just as your soul is 
immanent in the body. If it makes it 
any clearer, take the conception of 
Swedenborg. Imagine this universe, 
shaped like a gigantic human body; 
then God is to this infinite form, or 
universe, what you are to your physical 
form, or body. This does not mean that 
God is identical with the universe, but 
that He is in every part of it, thrilling, 
pulsating, living in it all, just as you 
live and thrill and pulsate throughout 
your body. And just as you, who dwell 
within the body, also transcend the 
27 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

body, so does God transcend the uni- 
verse, whose soul He is. 

This has been the conception of a 
philosopher here and there, it has been 
the thought of a poet like Wordsworth 
now and then, it has been the idea 
entertained by certain so-called free 
thinkers in the past history of religious 
thought; but never until to-day has it 
come to be the great vital conception of 
God that has dawned on men's hearts, 
that has made possible such new vistas 
of truth, and opened up before every 
individual life, so glorious an outlook 
and such great sources of power. How 
stupendous the thought, that God is 
not outside but within; that I cannot 
escape Him, however I may try, for 
He is here ! The God of infinite power, 
whose greatness I see manifested every- 
where in nature about me, is the same 
God who is waiting to manifest Himself 
within me. Even as I write these 
28 



OR, THE IMMANENT GOD 

words I am conscious that they open 
up undreamed of possibilities, in the 
attainment of character and of develop- 
ment along spiritual lines. Oh, that 
we might profoundly realize that we 
are not the men and women we 
might be; we are not as strong, we 
are not as pure, we are not as effective 
in our work, we are not as helpful in 
our relations with others ! We catch 
glimpses now and then of what it 
means to be a real man or a real woman, 
and then the clouds gather and we lose 
the vision ; but the fact that the glimpse 
has once come, that we once caught 
the vision of the meaning of manhood 
and womanhood, ought to be the 
surest sign to us that the selfish and 
materialistic lives we are living, do not 
begin to represent what we can be, and 
what we may attain, if we but come to 
understand ourselves and the infinite 
resources of power at our command. 
29 



THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

This is the New Thought of God 
that is finding its way into so many 
lives, that is helping men and women 
in so many different places, and under 
so many various names, to live the 
life of strength, of self-control, of peace, 
and of power. 

Emmanuel — " God with us." This 
is what men want, what men hunger 
for, and what men are searching 
after to-day, — a real God, — not 
a god who once was, but a God who 
now is ; not a god who once spake, but 
a God who now speaks ; not a god who 
once wrought, but a God who works 
to-day; and that God is here, and that 
God is within us. It is for us to realize 
the consciousness of our oneness with 
Him. 

" Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and 
Spirit with spirit can meet; 
Closer is He than breathing 
And nearer than hands and feet." 
30 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 




THE DIVINITY OP MAN 

VERY new thought of God 
must involve new thoughts of 
man. It is upon a man's 
idea of God that his idea of 
himself really depends. If his con- 
ception of God is narrow and unworthy, 
so must be his conceptiqn of himself; 
if, on the other hand, his thought of 
God is lofty and noble, his thoughts of 
himself must inevitably become lofty 
and noble. 

If the new thought of God, which 
has been influencing countless minds, 
and has brought new peace and power 
into so many lives, is essentially, the 
idea of a Supreme Power, back of, 
underlying, and in all things, then, 
33 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

what is man ? What is the normal re- 
lation between God and man ? Can 
there be any distinct boundary line 
between them ? Is there a divine side 
to man, which opens out into the un- 
fathomable depths of the Infinite ? 

History is largely made up of the 
attempts of humanity to build walls 
of separation. Men have been con- 
tinually putting up bars around them- 
selves, shutting out God and nature 
and their fellow-men. They have 
drawn sharp lines between their own 
souls and the Universal Soul. In the 
early life of the race, there seems to 
have been a divine nearness and in- 
timacy, which has been gradually lost, 
as civilization has advanced. Man 
has never lacked a so-called religion, 
but it has usually become formal and 
lifeless. To the patriarchs of simple 
and devout life, God was a present, all- 
important factor. While their con- 
34 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

ception of the divine character was 
limited and low, nevertheless, it was 
near and real. To the North American 
Indian, before he became " civilized," 
nature was the great revelator, and he 
lived in the immediate presence of the 
" Great Spirit." Even the pantheism 
and paganism of the Greeks contained 
so much of the intuitive element that 
Paul declared that " God was not far 
from every one of them." " As certain 
even of your own poets have said, For 
we are also His offspring." But as a 
material and artificial civilization grew 
up, and formal systems and institutions 
began to multiply, more and more men 
grew out of touch with the divine and 
unseen. The intellectual faculty be- 
came more highly developed, until it 
overshadowed the earlier perception. 
The primitive Church, pure and spirit- 
ual at first, gradually became theologi- 
cal, institutional, and polemic. From 
35 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

time to time, great souls have sought to 
tear down the walls of separation, as did 
George Fox, in the Quaker movement 
in England, but the great majority 
have failed to catch the vision. To- 
day, however, the ancient walls are 
slowly crumbling. Men are " feeling 
after God," and finding Him; and in 
finding Him, they are discovering them- 
selves. 

If we were to ask the old theologian, 
" What is Man ? " he might reply in 
words something like this: " Man is 
a fallen creature. In the sin of Adam 
he fell. He then became totally and 
absolutely depraved, and as a result he 
has been ever since, but a * poor, weak 
worm of the dust.' : Yet as we quote 
these familiar words, we feel keenly 
that this answer no longer satisfies the 
intelligent man. If we were to ask the 
rather overconfident medical student, 
he might reply: " Man is the most 
36 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

highly developed vertebrate, who has 
worsted all competitors in the struggle 
for existence, and to-day stands in the 
forefront of living creatures." Yet this 
does not satisfy. If we put the same 
question to the cynical pessimist, he 
would tell us: " Life is but a vapour; 
a breath, that passes away; a mere 
bubble upon the ocean of causation, 
here to-day and gone to-morrow, and 
gone for ever." The words of the old 
pessimist, Omar Khayyam, are even 
yet the fit expression of such a philos- 
ophy: 

" The worldly Hope, men set their hearts upon, 
Turns ashes — or it prospers ; and anon 
Like snow upon the Desert's dusty face 
Lighting a little hour or two, — is gone." 

Or, if we ask the man who has 
wasted his substance in riotous living, 
he might most fittingly reply, in the sad 
lament of Lord Byron: 
37 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

" My days are in the sere and yellow leaf, 
The flowers and fruit of love are gone; 
The worm, the canker and the grief, 
Are mine alone." 

If we should put this question to the 
average busy city man or woman, I 
presume we would receive from mul- 
titudes the answer, " My time is al- 
together taken up with just living. 
My horizon is narrow and contracted. 
I do not have time to think, or, if I do 
ask the meaning of my life, I find my- 
self unable to make any progress toward 
the solution of the mystery." 

And yet I venture to believe that in 
all men, there lies beneath these answers 
which might be given to our question, a 
vague consciousness that life is vastly 
more than such words would indicate. 
Whether we can formulate it in speech 
or not, whether we have any experience 
or knowledge to warrant us in the faith, 
there is a deep instinctive feeling in 
38 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

every man, that life is something more 
than a breath or a vapour, it is more 
than this superficial existence, man is not 
merely a " weak worm of the dust," it 
it is not enough to call him an insoluble 
mystery! My life has a reality, it pos- 
sesses meaning, it contains a deep 
significance, if only I can discover the 
truth about myself. 

Where shall we find the truer and 
more satisfying answer to our question, 
" What is man ? " If we turn back to 
the words of the ancient prophet, we 
find him saying, " God created man in 
His own image." As we turn to the 
New Testament we find that Jesus 
Christ utters the same truth when He 
teaches men to say " Our Father," and 
when He tries to help them understand 
that the relation of God to man is the 
relation of fatherhood, and that there- 
fore the relation of man to God should 
be the filial relation. This is the clear 
39 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

teaching of the Bible, and yet how vari- 
ous have been the interpretations put 
upon these familiar words, " Made in 
the image of God," and " Children of 
God." After all these centuries, how 
little we perceive of their profounder 
meaning. To most of us, I imagine, 
these phrases have been but poetry, 
simply beautiful figures of speech. We 
have seldom inquired deeply into their 
actual truth and asked, " What is their 
real significance for me as an individual 
man or woman ? " Now, it is the chief 
glory of the newer thinking of our day, 
that we are coming to interpret the 
poetry or the figure of 'speech suggested 
by these words, in terms that are 
freighted with profound meaning for 
every human soul. 

What truth can the words, " Made in 
God's image," contain, if not this: 
That when God created man He im- 
parted His very life to him, so that in 
40 






THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

man, simply as man, the divine char- 
acteristics are resident. Speaking re- 
ligiously, we say that in man God 
implanted a soul. But what is the soul 
but an emanation from God, an actual 
part of God Himself? What else can 
we mean, when we say, " Man is made 
in the image of God," unless we recog- 
nize that there is created in man, at the 
outset, a receptivity to the life, the 
mind, the love of the infinite God ? The 
old gulf that has existed so long in 
human thinking, between God and 
man, is being bridged at last, and we are 
coming to realize that man, by virtue 
of his being, is akin to God. God's life, 
to use a figure of speech, flows in man's 
veins. So that it is no longer poetry, 
but literal fact, to say that our lives 
are essentially the same as God's life; 
the only difference is one of degree. 

This is the only construction that 
can be put on the teaching of Jesus, 
41 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

as to the Fatherhood of God. He cer- 
tainly does not mean that God is oui 
father, only in the sense that he sus- 
tains a fatherly attitude towards us. 
Fatherhood, if it means anything, im- 
plies that the actual life of the father 
has been imparted. If we are children 
of God, we are such, only because in 
some real sense we possess within our- 
selves the very life of God. It can 
mean nothing less than that. Men talk 
of escaping from God, or of living their 
lives apart from Him. Can you not 
see, with the newer thought of God 
before us, how utterly impossible that 
is, when God's life is my life and I am 
a part of God ? God is not localized 
somewhere in space, a Being from 
whom I can escape, or upon whom I 
can turn my back if I choose. God 
dwells within me, and I can no more 
escape from God than I can get away 
from myself. If this were not true, 
42 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

there would be no such thing as life 
for me, I could lay no claim to the 
possession of mind, there would be none 
of the powers or abilities within me, of 
which I am becoming daily more and 
more conscious. 

We all know the wonderful and fas- 
cinating story of the evolution of man 
upon the earth. But the deeper signifi- 
cance of that story is nothing less than 
this : That from the very moment man 
first awoke to being, he has been slowly 
unfolding in consciousness, and that 
many have now reached the stage of 
spiritual development where they have 
become conscious of the existence and 
immanence of God, and thus know, 
rather than merely hold a belief, based 
upon the real or assumed authority of 
other men. This God-consciousness 
to which the race is rapidly tending is 
the result of the unfoldment and evo- 
lution of man for ages, and when fully 
43 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

possessed by the race will completely 
revolutionize our present conceptions of 
life, our ethics, customs, economics, and 
religion. 

Not always with the same degree of 
rapidity has man developed. There 
have been periods in his life when he 
has apparently been blind to the fact 
of his oneness with God ; but, however 
slowly, yet most surely, he has been 
progressing toward the goal, where he 
sees and realizes that his life, in its 
essence, is one with the Divine Life, that 
in his deeper consciousness he is akin 
to God. The great seers, the great 
poets, the great prophets, the great 
sages in every age and clime, have 
simply been those more deeply con- 
scious of their oneness with God, who 
have learned how to open their lives 
more fully to the incoming of the 
Divine Spirit, than have the rank and 
file of men about them. 
44 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

It is most interesting and also pro- 
foundly significant, to note how science 
to-day is throwing tremendous light 
upon this idea of man in his relation 
to the Infinite God. When a student 
in college, our professor in psychology 
told his classes frankly that there was 
no text-book on the subject worthy 
or adequate. " The older psycholo- 
gies," he said, " are out of date, and we 
are waiting now for the new psychology 
to be written." Since then, new dis- 
coveries have steadily been made in 
the psychological field, and yet the new 
psychology has not been written; and 
in our great universities they are still 
using James', Baldwin's, or Dewey's 
Psychology, but everywhere with the 
understanding that these books are no 
longer entirely satisfactory and must be 
supplemented by lectures, and collateral 
reading of more recent books or articles, 
that deal with the newer discoveries 
45 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

and conceptions of the psychology of our 
day. The time will come when some 
great mind will take this immense 
amount of new data that has been gath- 
ered, and generalizing from these facts, 
deduce the true laws and principles. 
Not until then will the new psychology 
be written. Perhaps it is just as well 
that as yet no such written psychology 
exists, for it leaves the mind of man 
more free and open to investigate truth 
wheresoever he may choose. 

However, there are some things 
which we do know, as to the rev- 
elations of the newer psychology. 
Professor James of Harvard admits 
frankly, in one of his recent books, 
that the phenomena of hypnotism, 
thought-transference, telepathy, mind 
reading, clairvoyancy, and clairaudi- 
ence, have been scientifically demon- 
strated. I do not refer to these 
phenomena as we see them employed 
46 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

so many times by quacks, charlatans, 
or unscrupulous persons. I am speak- 
ing now from the standpoint of science. 
The psychologists of to-day recognize 
and admit the scientific basis for these 
and many other facts formerly ignored 
or denied. The statement is made 
in the Edinburgh Review that thirty- 
nine living scientists of acknowledged 
standing, have openly avowed their 
belief in spiritual existences, and even, 
under certain conditions, in spirit-re- 
turn. 

Most of us are aware that the newer 
psychology teaches that man has two 
minds; or, as seems to me a better 
way of putting it, that there are two 
different forms of expression, or two 
different planes, upon which the one 
underlying unity, wliich we call the 
mind of man, is able to function. The 
subjective, the subconscious, or the 
subliminal mind, are all terms used to 
47 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

describe one of these expressions of 
mind, and that the most wonderful. 
On the other hand, there is the objective 
mind, with whose operations we are 
most familiar. This is not the place 
to discuss the powers and possibilities 
of the subconscious mind in man. Just 
now I want you to see that the newer 
psychology which recognizes the sub- 
conscious mind, and admits its powers, 
undreamed of heretofore, is proving 
to us most clearly that this subconscious 
mind, resident in all, is of the same 
essence as the Universal Mind. Re- 
member, this is from science, not re- 
ligion. We are no longer obliged to 
rest content with the statement of the 
Bible, that man is " made in the image 
of God," or that he is " the child of 
God." Science to-day has come for- 
ward to affirm that in his deeper self, 
in his subconscious or subliminal being, 
man possesses the qualities that re- 
48 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

late him vitally and essentially to the 
Infinite Mind of the Universe. Can 
we understand what this means, when 
scarce a quarter of a century ago the 
leading scientists were telling us, that 
mind was to be construed in terms 
of matter, and that the brain secreted 
thought just as the liver secretes bile ? 
Do we realize the sweeping change in 
the attitude of the scientific world, 
when we recall that twenty-five years 
ago Mr. Tyndall, in an address in 
London, made the statement that " the 
promise and potency of all life is to be 
found in matter; " and that scarcely 
a quarter of a century afterwards, Sir 
William Crookes, speaking on the same 
platform, and holding as prominent 
and influential a position in scientific 
circles, made the statement that " the 
promise and potency, not only of mat- 
ter, but of the entire universe, is found 
in life," — an exact reversal of posi- 
49 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

tion ? Twenty-five years ago it was 
believed that life, mind, and soul could 
only be construed in terms of matter; 
and to-day we are told just as emphat- 
ically, that there is no explanation for 
the universe or for man, save in terms 
of Infinite Life. Truly the new light 
is breaking when the scientist of to-day 
takes the position that in man's deeper 
self, in his subconscious mind, he is akin 
to the Universal Soul, the Infinite Mind 
of God. 

But some one may ask, " What then 
is the mission of Jesus Christ in the 
world and what is His relation to man ? " 
The unique thing about Jesus Christ, 
as compared with all other characters 
who have appeared in history, was His 
profound consciousness of God. This 
was what constituted His divinity. As 
He went up and down through Judea 
and Galilee, mingling with men of all 
classes, He never seemed to lose sight 
50 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

of the fact that He was one with God. 
He said, " I have come to show you 
the Father; he that hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father." As we study His 
life, His teachings, and His personality, 
this is the one thing that leaves its final 
impress upon our minds. Here is 
One possessing, as no other man in 
history, the God-consciousness. We 
call Him the Perfect One, the Ideal 
Man; what do we mean by these 
phrases ? If it is true that man was 
originally created with this divine life 
in him, and if the evolution of man has 
meant the unfolding of the conscious- 
ness of the divine within, then Jesus 
stands at the highest goal toward which 
this development, taking place always 
and everywhere in the life of humanity, 
has been tending from the beginning ? 
Jesus Christ is the One in whose life 
exists this perfect consciousness of one- 
ness with God. The difference there- 
51 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

fore between Jesus and every other 
man, is not a difference in kind, but 
rather a difference in degree. There 
are not two kinds of divinity. The same 
God is in you and in me that was in 
Jesus Christ; only in Him there was 
the fulness of consciousness of the 
divine life, while we are groping our 
way, and more or less imperfectly, seek- 
ing to realize our oneness with God. 

Did you ever notice in your reading 
of the Gospels, that Jesus never does 
anything for man that He does not ask 
man to do for himself ? Jesus always 
identifies His life with man's life, and 
man's life with His. He says, " As I 
am one with My Father, I pray that ye 
also may be one; " "As the Father 
hath sent Me into the world, just so 
I am sending you into the world." He 
called Himself " the Light of the 
world "; but He also said " Ye are the 
light of the world." And again, in that 
52 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

sublimest prophecy ever made to falter- 
ing humanity, " Ye therefore shall be 
perfect, even as your Father who is in 
heaven is perfect." Could there be any 
higher demand ? Could He ask any- 
thing more of man ? Could He in any 
way show a greater confidence in man's 
powers to realize the divine in himself, 
than when He says, " Ye therefore shall 
be perfect, even as God is perfect " ? 
And can you conceive of Jesus, mocking 
the aspiring spirit of man, by asking 
him to achieve in himself the impos- 
sible ? 

The trouble all down through the 
ages has been, that we have set Jesus 
Christ over and apart from humanity, 
as if He were a sort of being different 
in kind from the rest of humanity, as if 
He were a magical creation, neither 
altogether human nor altogether di- 
vine, and therefore occupying a position 
somewhere midway between heaven and 
53 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

earth. We have preached about His 
teachings, His ideals, and His com- 
mands. We have said to man, again 
and again, " Such was the beautiful, 
symmetrical, divine life He lived. But 
we are different, we are not like Him, 
we can never attain to His likeness." 
But such a view is to destroy for us the 
reality of His life, to miss the actual 
meaning of His teachings, and to cru- 
cify Him afresh. 

Let me repeat, a careful study of the 
Gospels reveals the fact that Jesus 
never does anything for man that He 
does not ask him to do for himself. 
His great purpose was to bring man 
to the same plane of God-consciousness 
that He occupied. He sought to show 
men constantly, that just as He lived 
the life of oneness with the Father, so 
they might, and should, enter into 
the realization of their oneness with the 
Father. How else will you interpret 
54 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

those many passages in Paul's writings, 
which we have regarded as rather 
mystical, where he speaks of u being 
crucified with Christ,'' and " dying with 
Christ;" "being buried with Christ," 
and " being raised again with Christ; " 
where he says, " Let this mind be 
in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus " ? What does Paul intend, 
but to identify every life with Jesus 
Christ and say to every man, " This 
God-consciousness was the supreme 
fact in His life, and so it ought 
to be in yours; you have the power, 
you have the capacity, you have the 
ability within yourself to realize your 
oneness with God, as Jesus Christ 
realized it in Himself " ? Our mistake 
has been in putting Jesus Christ so far 
away from us, and admitting this wide 
gulf of difference between His life and 
ours. His mission in the world was to 
teach men how to live His kind of a 
55 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

life. He said, " I am the Way and the 
Truth and the Life;" or, as President 
Harper used to love to put it, " I am the 
way to Truth and Life;" I am the way 
to live. 

We say that Jesus Christ came to 
save men from their sins. But how ? 
Once again, by developing within them 
the consciousness of their oneness with 
God. That is the only way that any 
one is saved from sin. For sin is selfish- 
ness, and selfishness means separate- 
ness, exclusiveness, aloofness from God 
and humanity. The only true way by 
which you can put selfishness out of 
your life — the only way you can get 
down to the source of all sins, and erad- 
icate the root sin — is by coming into 
oneness with the Universal Life, by 
forgetting your little claims, your petty 
ambitions, your individual desires, in 
the overwhelming desire and purpose 
of becoming one with Him and one 
56 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

with humanity. That is just how Jesus 
Christ saves men. It is by pointing 
out the way in His own life, and then 
by helping men to walk out along the 
line of this realization of their oneness 
with God; helping them to see that 
the kind of life He lived, which in its 
essence was a life filled with the God- 
consciousness, is the kind of life that 
every man and woman everywhere can 
live, if they choose. Not merely by 
believing things about Christ, but by 
catching His viewpoint, by sharing His 
spirit, by holding His thoughts, by 
living His life, will man be saved, now 
and in eternity. 

I said at the outset that it was a 
man's thought about himself that de- 
termined the kind of man he really was. 
If you think of yourself as weak and 
helpless, like a chip tossed to and fro 
on the waves of life's sea; if you think 
of yourself in terms of matter merely, 
57 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

soon to crumble into dust ; if you think 
of yourself as utterly unable to realize 
in yourself, here and now, the ideals 
you cherish, it is no wonder you do not 
progress very far toward the attainment 
of the highest and best things in char- 
acter. But let a man once take into 
his deepest thought and life this vital 
realization, that he is not weak and 
helpless; that he is not a poor and 
pitiable object, buffeted by circum- 
stances and change; that he never was 
a " weak worm of the dust; " that he 
never is totally and absolutely depraved ; 
that while ignorance and selfishness 
have kept him often from reaching 
the highest and best of which he is 
capable, still he is an actual part of 
God, his life is one with . the Father's 
life, and that it only rests with him to 
enter more deeply and more continu- 
ally into the realization of this oneness 
between himself and the Infinite God, 
58 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

— then his life takes on a new meaning 
and dignity, a new grandeur and power, 
such as it has never before pos- 
sessed. 

I have somewhere seen a painting 
of two faces by an idealist, a young 
woman of nineteen. The first one 
Was rarely beautiful in form and fea- 
ture; but as you looked into the eyes, 
you discerned an indescribable sadness, 
a sense of dissatisfaction with self and 
hunger for the unattainable. And you 
turned away, sad at heart, because of 
the soul's unrest depicted on the coun- 
tenance. The other face, cheek almost 
touching cheek, was the same, and 
yet, not the same; a face out of which 
the hunger and unrest and dissatisfac- 
tion had fled, a face radiant with 
serenity and self -poise and peace. What 
a graphic outline of the oft-repeated 
story, of the human being not yet awake 
to its divine Self, — hungry, anxious, 
59 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

sad, yearning for it knows not what; 
and all the time the divine Self, the real 
Self, the true Being, is close at hand, 
only waiting for recognition. Oh, the 
sad and restless and anxious faces all 
about us, betokening the deeper hunger 
and unrest of the soul! How close to 
us is the divine Self, few yet realize. 
But it is within every one of us, waiting 
only for recognition, waiting only to be 
awakened, when it may reveal its won- 
drous powers. 

And when any individual once comes 
to a realization of that deeper or divine 
Self, it brings the permanent conscious- 
ness of the Source whence our life 
comes and whither it flows. It means 
for such souls, as step by step they con- 
tinue to walk in the light, the constant 
increase of peace, of power, and of joy. 
God help us to be so deeply earnest 
in the search for our diviner Self, that 
we shall not rest content until we have 
60 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN 

discovered the secret of living the life, 
that is life, indeed! 

"I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first, 
I ask not: but unless God send His hail, 
Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow, 
In some time, His good time, I shall arrive; 
He guides me and the bird. In His good time ! " 



61 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 
OP THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 



THE 
POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES OF 

THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 




O rightly estimate and correctly 
interpret the new Religious 
movement of our day, one 
must approach it with a clear 
understanding of the psychological 
principles which constitute its scien- 
tific basis. Our Age has been witness- 
ing a most interesting and significant 
development in the ancient science 
of Psychology. Many years ago Pro- 
fessor James of Harvard University 
prefaced a lecture upon Psychology 
with these words : " Perhaps there 
are some of you who would like to 
3 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

inquire what practical benefits this 
science of Psychology has for the 
world. I reply, absolutely none." And 
yet to-day, as Dr. Worcester has said, 
Professor James might, if he chose, be 
one of the most successful Neurol- 
ogists of the age, with his consummate 
skill as a physiological psychologist. 

James defines Psychology as " The 
Science of mental processes." Halleck 
calls it " The science of the mind." 
Baldwin, in a still more comprehensive 
statement, defines it as " The science 
of the Self." It has been my privilege 
for a number of years to study along 
these lines, to come into personal con- 
tact with some of the men who are 
recognized as authorities in this field, 
and I am merely employing the results 
of their work, the conclusions, final 
or not, as the case may be, to which 
they have come. One other word needs 
to be said : it behooves no man to-day, 
4 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

in this sphere of thought, to be over- 
dogmatic. The field of inquiry is too 
vast, and the possible explanations of 
the phenomena observed too varied, 
to admit of unanimity of opinion. The 
psychologists who have given their 
lives to the study of the problems in- 
volved, are not agreed as to many 
things. Not a few of the leaders, how- 
ever, are practically unanimous as 
respects certain fundamental princi- 
ples. Opinions are varied, from that 
of Janet who held that the phenomena 
of the sub-conscious mind were merely 
the concomitant of hysteria, to the 
view of those who claim that such 
phenomena furnish nothing less than 
the positive proof of man's divine 
origin, of his spiritual nature, and of 
his Eternal Destiny. As the result of 
my own study and experience, I am 
quite ready to agree with Professor 
James and other recognized authorities 
6 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

in this field, as to the reality of the sub- 
conscious mind. And if the discussion 
of this subject seems to be leading us far 
afield, let us keep in mind that it is not 
merely for the sake of the Psychology, 
but rather that in the end we may see 
its vital bearings upon man's life and 
the meaning of religion. 

We have already seen that the most 
important contributions of the newer 
Psychology are involved in the idea 
of the dual mind of man. Thomas J. 
Hudson in his " Laws of Psychic Phe- 
nomena " claims that man has two 
minds, the objective and subjective. 
Psychologists, however, because of the 
greater simplicity and for the sake of 
unity, prefer to think of one mind, 
though functioning on two different 
planes. " The sub-conscious mind is 
not a second mind; to think so is to 
place an artificial barrier between the 
outer person and the limitless within. 
6 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

There is but one mind ; the outer phase 
is the conscious, the inner phase is the 
sub-conscious." For the sake of con- 
venience, we may speak of the conscious 
or objective mind, and the sub-con- 
scious or subjective mind. The mind 
of man then, according to this view, is 
conscious and sub-conscious, external 
and internal, objective and subjective. 
The conscious mind acts, the sub- 
conscious re-acts; the conscious mind 
produces the impression, the sub-con- 
scious produces the expression ; the con- 
scious mind determines what is to be 
done; the sub-conscious furnishes the 
mental material and the power with 
which to do it. The conscious mind 
takes cognizance of the objective world. 
Its means of observation are the five 
physical senses. It is the outgrowth of 
man's physical necessities. It is his 
guide in his struggle with his material 
environment. Its highest function is 
7 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

that of reasoning. The sub-conscious 
mind, on the other hand, takes cogni- 
zance of its environment, by means 
independent of the physical senses. It 
perceives by intuition. It is the seat 
of the emotions and storehouse of 
memory. It performs its highest func- 
tions when the objective senses are in 
abeyance. Dr. Hudson adds to this 
view the two propositions: " That 
the subjective mind is constantly ame- 
nable to control by suggestion,'' and 
" That it is incapable of inductive 
reasoning." The sub-conscious mind 
is intuitively the source of the deepest 
desires, the deepest impulses, the deep- 
est sentiments, the deepest convictions 
that become potent in shaping life and 
character. If this be true, the sub- 
conscious mind is the power behind the 
throne; it is the source of dynamic 
energy in a man's life; it receives the 
impression of the thoughts and desires 
8 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

produced by the conscious mind, and 
expresses them inevitably, in the phys- 
ical organism, in the personality, in 
the character of the individual. The 
sub-conscious mind is " the great 
within," — an inner mental world from 
which all things proceed, that appear 
in the being of man. 

There are many, doubtless, who aie 
curious to know the facts which have 
convinced the modern Psychologist 
that there is such a thing as the sub- 
conscious mind. Let me briefly call 
your attention to some of the phe- 
nomena which have led to this conclu- 
sion. Students of life in its lower forms 
have long been convinced, that here are 
expressed many activities, which can- 
not be satisfactorily explained merely 
in terms of matter. Sir William Daw- 
son tells of watching with his magni- 
fying glass the operations of an amoeba, 
one of the lowest forms of animal life, 
9 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

as it was trying to swallow a one-celled 
plant; of how it lengthened itself out 
and went through prodigious efforts 
in its attempt to absorb this morsel of 
food ; and when it found itself unequal 
to the task, threw it aside and moved 
off in another direction. George Henry 
Lewes, one of the early investigators 
in the field of physiological Psychology, 
proved by unmistakable evidence that 
in animals possessing no brain what- 
ever, there are activities revealing pur- 
pose, showing adaptation of means to 
end, which can only be accounted for 
by some kind of mind. Every scientist 
has recognized the presence of this 
something in the lower animals. They 
have called it " instinct." But what has 
that word meant ? It has only been 
a term to veil our ignorance. Wherever 
we perceive purposive actions, or the 
adaptation of means to end, we must 
recognize some form of mental activity. 
10 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

Mere matter will not account for it. 
Only mind explains ; but a mind below 
the plane of consciousness. 

As we come higher up the scale we 
find the ant, with its wonderfully com- 
plex life, its marvelous " instinct," its 
social organization. If you have read 
Maeterlinck's " Life of the Bee," you 
know the wonderful story he tells of the 
activities carried on with consummate 
skill by the different classes of bees, 
and of the perfectly articulated society 
that exists within the hive. The modern 
psychologist tells us that the instinct 
of the ant and the bee is simply another 
name for mind; a mind not as individ- 
ual or as progressive as that of which 
we are conscious in ourselves, but mind 
none the less, operating on the sub- 
conscious plane. Coming still higher, 
we find the beaver constructing his 
ingenious hut with an almost human 
skill. The intelligent dog or horse 
11 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

will reason, will remember, will cherish 
feelings of affection or hatred, will be 
suspicious or confiding. Here, at least, 
we recognize a mind, closely similar to 
the mind of man. This is one class of 
facts that has led psychologists to 
feel that there is much more of mind 
in the animal world than expresses 
itself in the conscious life of man. 
There is a great unconscious realm 
where mind is present, where mind 
operates, where mind controls activi- 
ties. 

If we turn our attention to man, we 
are met again by numerous expressions 
of mental activity which lie in a realm 
outside of man's consciousness. We 
will all fall asleep to-night. The con- 
scious mind will, apparently, be dead. 
The five avenues through which it re- 
ceives knowledge will be closed ; yet the 
heart will go on beating, the lungs will 
continue to expand and contract, all 
12 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

the digestive processes will go on, as 
normally; just the right amount of 
blood needed by each organ of the 
body will be furnished ; in short, the 
entire complex life of the physical 
organism goes on unaltered and undis- 
turbed. What is the explanation ? We 
have said in the past, "It is due to the 
response of each organ to its mechan- 
ical stimulus." But what power con- 
trols and co-ordinates all these various 
organs ? What is it that holds them 
together so that to-morrow morning 
you awaken from unconsciousness, the 
same personality as when you went 
to sleep ? We call the human body 
a perfect machine, and we speak of it 
in terms of wonder and admiration; 
but it is surely a curious kind of " ma- 
chine," that can regulate its own actions, 
that can repair its own waste, that can 
substitute a perfect organ for one that 
has become defective. We do not 
13 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

generally use the word " machine " 
in this sense. Any machine made by 
man requires the machinist or the 
engineer to regulate it and see that it 
runs smoothly. No machine runs on 
indefinitely without requiring careful 
adjustment and skillful attention. What 
constitutes the " machinist " in man ? 
What is the power that controls and 
regulates his activities, whether sleeping 
or waking? Psychology affirms that 
the only power capable of such marvel- 
ous activities is the power of mind, 
functioning, however, on the sub-con- 
scious plane. The somnambulist arises 
from his bed in sleep, walks long dis- 
tances, performs all manner of absurd 
and even perilous feats, impossible in 
his waking moments, carries on a 
more or less intelligent conversation, 
and in the morning remembers nothing 
of the night's experiences. It is the 
same intelligence that manifests itself 
14 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

in the hypnotic subject who obeys 
blindly the will of the one exercising 
control. 

Another class of facts relates to the 
wonderful way in which the physical 
organism constantly tends to recover 
equilibrium when attacked by injury 
or disease. Among reptiles, if a foot 
or leg is lost, immediately the new 
member begins to grow. If a worm is 
cut in two, at once the part destroyed 
begins to form again, with all its 
organs properly adjusted. For cen- 
turies, the profession of medicine has 
been familiar with the phrase, " Vis 
medicatrix naturae," or, " The healing 
power of nature ; " and from the very 
beginning of medicine, this force has 
been recognized. Ambroise Pare wrote 
on the wall of his hospital, " I dress 
the wound, and God heals it ; " or, as 
another famous doctor once said, " We 
amuse our patients, while nature cures 
15 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

them." Every physician recognizes that 
there is in nature a force capable of 
repairing the damage done, and of 
bringing harmony out of discordant 
conditions. So that the statement has 
been made, that of all sick persons, 
probably two-thirds could recover of 
their own accord, without any medical 
assistance. What this curative power 
is, and the laws of its operation, are 
questions to be considered elsewhere. 
It is sufficient for our argument to say 
that the remedial powers of nature 
must proceed from the mind, operating 
in the sub-conscious. These are some 
of the facts that lead the modern 
Psychologist to affirm so confidently 
the reality of the sub-conscious mind. 
Let us now define more in detail the 
distinctive powers of the sub-conscious 
as compared with those of the conscious 
mind. In the first place, we are told 
that the sub-conscious mind perceives 
16 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

truth intuitively and immediately. Our 
conscious minds arrive at truth through 
the process of induction. We begin 
with the simple fact; slowly and with 
painstaking care we gather our data, 
and at length, by the laborious method 
of inductive reasoning, we reach the 
general law or principle or truth. The 
sub-conscious mind, by the power of 
intuition, is enabled to apprehend essen- 
tial truth, antecedent to, and independ- 
ent of reason, experience or instruc- 
tion. Many of the great minds in the 
past have stood forth above their 
fellows, because they seemed to be 
gifted in some wonderful way with 
this intuitive power. Jesus of Nazareth, 
nineteen hundred years ago, possessed 
the intuitive mind. Read His words 
as they have come down to us, His 
profound yet simple statements of truth 
regarding God and man, the meaning 
of man's life and his Eternal Destiny. 
17 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

Nowhere will you find an indication 
of any reasoning process. Jesus does 
not argue from isolated facts up to 
general laws and principles. He is 
not a logician. But He utters some 
great Truth, by a flash of intuitive 
insight, as when He said to the woman 
of Samaria, " God is a Spirit, they 
that worship Him, must worship in 
spirit and in truth." He grasped truth 
intuitively, without going through the 
laborious methods which characterize 
our mental processes. It is by the 
exercise of this faculty that the Prophet, 
ancient or modern, is enabled to grasp 
fundamental truths. We call it " in- 
spiration," and certainly it is the basis 
of all we know of inspiration. One of 
the most striking illustrations of the 
intuitive mind is found in our own 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. As has been 
said, "One might just as well begin 
at the end of any of his essays, and 

18 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

read backwards, for all the difference 
that is made in the sense." In Emer- 
son's writings, each sentence stands 
alone by itself. He does not begin with 
a few facts, and then work out an 
elaborate argument; he never starts 
with a premise, and draws from that a 
logical conclusion. But one sentence 
follows another, clean cut and lumi- 
nous, many of them revealing marvel- 
ous insight. We call him a great 
philosopher, but not in the ordinary 
sense in which we apply that term to 
Kant, or Hegel or Spencer. He is only 
entitled to the name because of his rare 
ability to perceive truth intuitively. We 
regard the feminine mind to a greater 
or less degree as an intuitive mind, 
by which we mean that the average 
woman does not reason logically as man 
usually reasons, and yet she arrives 
at conclusions, scarce knowing how. 
There are many of us, when we come 
19 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

to a crisis where help is needed on some 
problem, who instinctively turn to our 
wives or mothers for their judgment 
on the matter. We have learned from 
experience, that their judgment, while 
not the result of long reasoning proc- 
esses, is usually correct. The feminine 
mind perceives intuitively, as the mascu- 
line mind does not. The same power 
is observed in children, who often 
amaze us by their unexpected knowl- 
edge and original statements of truth. 
This pow r er of intuition is the funda- 
mental faculty of the sub-conscious 
mind that dwells in every one of us. 

The next faculty is that of deductive 
reasoning. It is the inseparable con- 
comitant of intuition. " The latter 
grasps the law by instantaneous per- 
ception, and the former, with the same 
inconceivable rapidity of mentation, 
deduces all legitimate conclusions and 
consequences, near and remote." 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

Another power possessed by the sub- 
conscious mind is that of a potentially 
perfect memory. Ninety-nine one-hun- 
dredths of what we see, or hear, or 
experience, passes out of our conscious 
life and is forgotten. If you have never 
tried the experiment, it might be Worth 
while to sit down some quiet evening 
with pencil and paper, and write all 
that you know, all that you can remem- 
ber to have learned, all your past experi- 
ences. You will be surprised to find 
how soon your powers of memory will 
be exhausted. Our conscious memory 
is decidedly limited. It does not begin 
to contain the smallest fractional part 
of what we have seen and read and 
learned and experienced. 

Now what becomes of all these facts 
and experiences that once existed in 
our conscious life ? Are they absolutely 
lost to us ? Not at all ; they have 
simply dropped below the plane of the 
21 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

conscious and lie in the sub-conscious 
mind, to be evoked again into being 
under certain conditions. The psy- 
chologists tell us that in all probability 
the sub-conscious mind possesses the per- 
fect memory, that it never forgets any- 
thing; that everything you have seen, 
everything you have heard, everything 
you have read, every fleeting impression 
made upon your life, every experience 
through which you have passed, is 
lodged in the sub-conscious mind. But 
you ask, " How do they know this ? " 
Take the experience of delirium, in 
which people will describe experiences, 
recall scenes, dates and faces that had 
long since faded out of conscious 
memory. There is the not uncommon 
experience, of tremendous mental lucid- 
ity just before death, when, in drown- 
ing or sudden accident, all the past 
life seems to rise before one, and the 
things long forgotten are brought once 
m 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

more into consciousness. From whence 
does this forgotten life spring thus 
suddenly into being ? From the sub- 
conscious mind. The fragrance of a 
flower will recall scenes and events that 
had been entirely obliterated from 
memory. The revisiting of childhood's 
home, or the meeting with some old 
friend, will bring before us events 
and experiences of which we had not 
thought for years. Bring them from 
where ? From the sub-conscious, where 
they have lain all unsuspected, these 
many years. 

The classic story told by Coleridge 
describes a girl, so ignorant that she 
could not even read or write her 
name, who in her early life had worked 
as a servant in the house of an old 
scholar, whom she often overheard 
reading aloud passages from the He- 
brew, Greek and Latin classics. What 
she heard had absolutely no meaning 
23 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

whatever for her conscious mind. But 
years afterward, during her delirium, 
while sick in a hospital, she repeated 
page after page of the classic litera- 
ture as perfectly as the scholar had 
originally repeated them in her hearing. 
These sounds, meaningless to her ob- 
jective mind, were registered in the 
sub-conscious, and in the hour of de- 
lirium years later, were given back 
again. 

One of the leading clergymen of New 
York City tells in a recent book the 
following experience: He was giving 
an address on some important occasion 
to a crowded house; friends and offi- 
cials of the organization were seated 
behind him on the platform. As he 
came to a particular place in his ad- 
dress, he entirely lost the line of thought, 
and could not recall the next sentence, 
as written in his manuscript. While 
confronting this dilemma, not knowing 
24 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

what to do, to his immense relief, a 
friend who sat just behind spoke the 
two or three words that came next in 
his address as written. He caught the 
words, took up the line of thought and 
continued his address to the end. After- 
wards he turned to the friend and said, 
" I don't know how to thank you for 
helping me, as you did." His friend 
replied, " I did not help you." " Why," 
he said, " you gave me just the words 
I was trying to remember. But how 
did you know them ? " His friend 
replied: " You are mistaken; I did 
not say anything. I did not open my 
lips during the entire evening." Where 
did the needed words come from ? His 
own explanation is, that in the moment 
of stress, in his intense desire, they 
were given him out of the sub-conscious. 
We have all had the experience of 
ransacking our brains, to find some 
name we have forgotten, until finally 
25 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

we give up the effort to recall; and 
then suddenly, as we are thinking 
about something entirely different, the 
name rises into our consciousness. Be- 
cause of these and many other similar 
facts, the psychologist predicates of 
the sub-conscious mind a potentially 
perfect memory. 

The next power of the sub-conscious, 
is what has been designated as tele- 
kinetic energy. It is simply the power 
by which ponderable bodies are moved 
without physical contact or mechan- 
ical appliances. It is the power, genu- 
inely exercised, though not always, by 
so-called " spirit-mediums." In mak- 
ing this statement, I am aware that I 
shall run counter to the prejudices of 
some, and transcend the sphere of 
observation of many. But if you have 
read the book entitled " Shadow World " 
by Hamlin Garland, or if you are 
familiar with the writings of Sir William 
26 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge, of 
England, or if you have given any time 
to the study of psychic phenomena, 
you know that in many cases such 
phenomena have been demonstrated 
to be genuine. The explanation is that 
the sub-conscious mind, embodied or 
disembodied, is able under certfin 
conditions to exert a force sufficient to 
lift a table, move chairs and perform 
all sorts of feats with physical bodies, 
without recourse to mechanical means 
or physical force. 

Another striking characteristic of 
the sub-conscious mind is its telepathic 
faculty, or the power possessed by the 
sub-conscious minds of men, of com- 
municating intelligence from one to 
another, independently of all ordinary 
sensory channels of transmission. If 
you are familiar with the Proceedings 
of the London Society for Psychical 
Research, you know how numerous are 
27 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

the instances given of verified cases of 
telepathic influence. Men like Pro- 
fessors James, Hyslop, Elmer T. Gates, 
and many others, are telling us that 
mind can communicate with mind, not 
only in the same locality, but across 
miles and miles of space. Upon the 
evidences of the Scientist to-day, tel- 
epathy is as indubitably proved as is 
telegraphy. Many of the phenomena 
of mediumship can be explained by 
telepathy. A good medium is usually 
a good telepathist. Telepathy is a 
scientific fact that we are coming to 
understand more and more, as we dis- 
cover the laws that control the opera- 
tion of this tremendous mental force. 
Psychologists say it is the sub-conscious 
mind that possesses the telepathic 
power, which explains many of the 
mysteries and enigmas about which 
we are now reading and hearing so 
much. 

28 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

We are also coming to understand 
how large a part the sub-conscious 
plays in many of the conscious experi- 
ences of human life. Think of the 
geniuses of the race, in literature, in 
art, or in music. Balzac would go for 
days and even months without any 
sign of the creative power; then there 
would come upon him a perfect frenzy 
of thought; he would shut himself in 
his room away from his friends, and 
write for thirty-six or even forty-eight 
hours at a stretch, without taking food 
or rest, under the inspiration of the 
thoughts struggling for expression. 
George Eliot tells us that her best 
writing came, she knew not from what 
source. These moments of up-lift and 
inspiration, in which genius does its 
greatest and best work, would indicate 
that one has been able, in some way, to 
command the sub-conscious mind, and 
make himself, for the time being, the 
29 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

master of its wondrous powers. These 
are the great creative moments in 
literature, in music and in art. 

There are other experiences through 
which we ourselves may have passed, 
or which are familiar to us in other 
lives. Take the instance of the frail 
mother, with only enough strength to 
do each day's work, who in the presence 
of some special emergency, where sev- 
eral of the children are taken seriously 
ill, will throw herself into the work of 
caring for them day and night, tasting 
food only irregularly, going without 
her sleep for days and even weeks. 
Friends marvel why she doesn't break 
down, and collapse utterly. But when 
the emergency is over, this same frail 
woman seems to be stronger than ever. 
What power is it, in this critical experi- 
ence, that enables her to do things she 
never could have done ordinarily ? 
The powers of the sub-conscious mind 
30 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

called into operation by her need, says 
Psychology. 

Let me call attention to but one 
other class of experiences, where a 
person confronts conditions calling 
for heroism or self-sacrifice. It may 
be some one, who in the sudden crisis 
exhibits a depth of feeling, reveals a 
heroism, and manifests a spirit of self- 
effacement, that we never deemed him 
capable of, and that he himself never 
thought he possessed. The stress of 
the emergency has simply awakened 
and called into consciousness powers 
heretofore unrecognized and unknown. 

Perhaps it is unnecessary in this 
connection to mention additional il- 
lustrations of the workings of these 
wondrous powers, resident in the sub- 
conscious mind. Let me suggest, very 
briefly, the deeper significance for 
man's higher spiritual nature, of this 
sub-conscious realm, whose threshold 
31 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

we are just beginning to cross, and 
whose powers and laws we do not yet 
fully understand. 

It is apparent to all that there is no 
conscious mind in the helpless babe; 
it lives its animal life, performing the 
various functions of the body, solely 

bv means of its sub-conscious mind. 

1/ 

Gradually, as it learns how to use its 
physical senses, knowledge comes from 
the external world, and a conscious 
mind begins to emerge. This is evolved 
very slowly by the physical necessities 
of the material environment. It de- 
pends upon the brain as its organ. It 
is thus an accompaniment of our phys- 
ical life. It is limited in its powers. It 
is apparently intended for temporary 
use, so long as we inhabit the physical 
body. With the destruction of the 
brain, as far as we can see, it ceases to 
exist. 

It is not so, however, with the sub- 
32 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

conscious mind. Every living being, 
even down to the tiny cell, exhibits the 
presence of this manifestation of mind. 
It is the power that controls and co- 
ordinates all the various organs of the 
body in the animal and in the babe, 
long before the conscious mind appears. 
It controls and regulates the functions 
of the body, after the brain has become 
diseased and reason has fled. It does 
not depend on the brain as its organ 
of expression. Then it need not dis- 
appear when the brain has ceased to 
exist. Indeed it may only begin its 
true functioning when the soul has 
left the body. Whence comes this mind, 
what is its nature, what is its destiny ? 
Think for a moment of our modern 
thought of God as the Universal 
Mind, immanent in all things. 

How can we describe the Infinite 
Mind of the Universe ? Certainly God 
must think intuitively. He must per- 
33 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

ceive truth immediately. He needs 
not to employ the long laborious in- 
ductive process, through which we have 
to pass, in our search for truth. He 
would not be God if He did. The 
Infinite Mind is the intuitive mind. 
God's mind then, which perceives in- 
tuitively all laws, all principles, all 
truths, must inevitably deduce the 
infinite applications and the universal 
consequences, of these laws or princi- 
ples or truths. This follows naturally 
as a concomitant of intuition. God's 
mind also is one in which memory is 
absolute and perfect. With Him there 
is no past, or present, or future. It is 
all the Eternal Now, wherein is no 
place for forgetting or remembering. 

Now if it is true, as we have tried to 
show, that the sub-conscious mind in 
man is the intuitive mind, that it 
reasons deductively, and possesses, po- 
tentially at least, the perfect memory, 
34 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIXD 

do you not see that the sub-conscious 
mind in your life and mine is absolutely 
akin to the mind of God, part and 
parcel of the Infinite Mind of the Uni- 
verse ? You cannot escape the con- 
clusion, that at last man has discovered 
within himself, the scientific basis for 
the faith that we are all made in His 
image, and are in very truth children 
of God. We do not need to go back 
to the Old Testament or even to the 
words of Jesus for that truth, in the 
light of the revelations of modern 
Psychology as to the meaning and 
powers of the sub-conscious mind in 
man. Do you realize what that may 
mean for your life and mine ? We are 
no longer employing poetry or figure 
of speech or beautiful sentiment, when 
we say that God's life is in us, and we 
are a part of the Infinite; indeed, we 
are stating literal, scientific truth; and 
therefore, all that is necessary, if we 
35 



THE POWERS AND POSSIBILITIES 

are to attain the beauty of soul, the 
symmetry of character, the nobility of 
life, as we see it in Jesus Christ, is 
to enter into the realization of our 
oneness with God. 

We shall consider elsewhere the Law 
of Suggestion, that great instrument by 
which we reach this sub-conscious mind 
and command it to do our bidding. I 
wonder if I have made clear the possi- 
ble bearing of all these marvelous dis- 
closures of Psychology, which have 
been so inadequately described, upon 
our higher moral and spiritual lives. 
Listen, then, to the word of Science, 
which is none the less the word of God: 
Every thought you think, every im- 
pulse you feel, every desire you formu- 
late, every ambition you cherish, — 
whether you express them to the world 
or not, — are all ineffaceably registered 
in your deep inner life. By means of 
these wonderful powers at its command, 
36 



OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 

the sub-conscious mind takes your 
thought, your impulse, your desire and 
your ambition, be they high or low, be 
they right or wrong, be they selfish or 
unselfish, be they noble or ignoble, and 
translates them, not possibly, but most 
surely, into your physical organism, 
your personality, your character, for 
time and eternity. 

Oh, that we might come to see what 
it means, to record these thoughts and 
desires upon " the great within " of our 
beings! We may be able to put un- 
worthy thoughts and low desires out 
of our conscious minds; but, if they 
have ever had a real existence there, the 
solemn truth remains, that they have 
gone deeper down into the sub-con- 
scious self, there to work themselves 
out inevitably, in life and personality, 
in manhood and womanhood, in charac- 
ter and in Destiny. 



37 



FAITH AS A VITAL FOKCE 




FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

HE master-key to success, in 
every realm of human life, 
is Faith. Faith has inspired 
every truly great career that 
has blessed the world. Faith has 
made possible every great Institution 
that has enriched the life of humanity. 
Faith is the scarlet thread running 
through all the religions of the world, 
and revealing their essential unity. It 
is Faith that lifts man above the level 
of the brute, and makes him master 
over the physical world. We speak of 
Love as the crowning summit toward 
which man has been steadily climbing 
from the beginning; we think of the 
perfected man, or the fully developed 
41 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

man, or the saved man, as one in whom 
the principle of Love reigns supreme; 
but faith is the pathway to love, and 
there can be no love whatsoever that 
does not contain the implicit faith. 
When Jesus proclaimed the potency of 
Faith on the hilltops of Palestine nine- 
teen hundred years ago, He revealed 
for all time the true secret of man's 
ultimate triumph over things of time 
and sense. 

But what is Faith ? As a positive 
vital force in life, faith has been as yet 
but little understood. There has been 
so much confusion of thought as to 
the real meaning of faith; it is con- 
founded with so many things which 
it is not, that most of us find it difficult 
to define just what it is, what power it 
exerts, or according to what laws it 
operates. 

Faith certainly is not credulity. We 
admire the unquestioning faith of the 
42 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

child and in the child it is beautiful; 
but it is credulity born of inexperience 
and ignorance, unworthy of our respect 
in the man. The credulous faith of the 
child, is the prophecy of the intelligent 
faith of manhood. But the man of 
" blind faith," who accepts truth or 
conducts his life simply on the au- 
thority of another, without personal 
knowledge or experience, has not yet 
emerged from the childhood of faith. 
The child accepts the statements of 
parents and teachers without a ques- 
tion. Such a mental attitude belongs 
to the child's stage of development, but 
a man's faith must be his own, born 
out of his personal struggle for truth. 

Nor is faith merely an hypothesis. 
Many a person who says, " I believe," 
really means " I suppose it is true." 
Such a belief has never penetrated the 
outer surface of life. Persons of this 
mind have really never given enough 
43 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

attention to the subject to be able to 
say intelligently whether they believe 
or not. Many who recite the creeds in 
our churches to-day only say the words, 
without any actual experience to justify 
their truth. Others are saying the same 
creed, and it has been repeated by 
multitudes for centuries, and so they 
suppose it must be true. Faith is no 
mere hypothesis, the only substitute for 
knowledge not yet attained. 

We must rule out also the definition 
given by the young theological student, 
that " faith is the faculty by which one 
is enabled to believe what he knows is 
not true," although many good people 
still seem to think that this is the chief 
function of faith. 

But our greatest error arises from 
the common tendency of confounding 
faith with belief. Belief is the intellec- 
tual body, while faith is the inner soul. 
Beliefs are variable, they are constantly 
44 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

changing, they are but symbols of 
reality; whereas faith is the inner, 
eternal, permanent reality, underlying 
all the various forms of belief. Beliefs 
pass, faith remains. It is a great mis- 
fortune, when belief becomes so crystal- 
lized as to lose the flexibility which per- 
mits it to interpret faith, conformably 
to the changing mental states of suc- 
cessive epochs. It is faith, not doubt, 
that creates the new theologies from age 
to age. 

Belief, in the strict definition of the 
word, is the intellectual acceptance of 
a certain statement of truth, or the 
acceptance by the mind of an intellec- 
tual proposition about certain facts or 
principles. A man may accept these 
intellectual statements, he may give 
intellectual allegiance to these proposi- 
tions, and yet his life may be in no wise 
influenced by them; just as a man can 
accept certain intellectual statements 
45 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

about business or politics or science, 
and yet in no sense be a business man, 
nor a politician, nor a scientist. Such 
beliefs are purely theoretical, they exist 
in the intellect alone; they have not 
touched the heart, or conscience, or 
will. It is only when we come to feel 
this distinction between faith and belief, 
that we are in a position to discern the 
meaning of vital faith, and its real 
power in our lives. 

If one studies the Gospels, he will 
find that Jesus almost invariably uses 
the word " Faith," as meaning some- 
thing distinct from mere intellectual 
belief. When the sick came to Him for 
healing, Jesus never asked them, " What 
are your religious beliefs, what do you 
think about God, what are your beliefs 
about my person or my mission in the 
world ? " He said to the blind men 
who sought Him, " Believe ye that I 
am able to do this ? They said unto 
46 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

Him, 'Yea, Lord.'" This is His 
typical method with all who come to 
Him for help. He does not ask assent 
to a mere intellectual proposition, but 
rather, " Have you enough faith, or 
courage, or confidence in my power to 
help, to trust yourselves to me ? " Ap- 
parently Jesus was not concerned as to 
their intellectual conceptions of religion. 
His insistent demand was for faith, as 
an inner, co-operating force. He is 
always trying to help men see that 
faith is not believing an intellectual 
statement of truth, — the scribes and 
pharisees, whose religious attitude he 
constantly condemns, do that — but 
rather, an inner, dynamic, spiritual 
force, that translates the truth under- 
lying beliefs into daily life and character, 
and thus leads one to trust himself 
utterly to the object of his faith, what- 
ever it may be. This is the psycho- 
logical conception of Faith, — as a 
47 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

faculty of the mind, nay, better still, 
as the sum total of a man's whole atti- 
tude, whereby he has the courage to 
trust himself absolutely to the object 
of his faith. 

Faith is never passive; it must be 
active. It is not simply theoretical 
acquiescence; it is positive co-opera- 
tion. It is not asking; it is believing 
that we have that for which we ask, 
and living as if we had already received. 
It involves the launching of conscience 
and heart and will in the direction of 
the object of one's faith. You say you 
believe in God, but does your life 
reveal the God-power ? If it does, you 
have faith. You believe that Jesus 
reveals the true way of Life, but are 
you living that kind of a life ? If you 
are, you have faith. You believe that 
death is not the end of life, but have 
you realized your own immortality 
here and now, and banished all fear 
48 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

of the future ? If you have, you know 
the meaning of faith. Perhaps I can 
make the distinction still clearer, by 
the homely illustration of the boy 
walking along the country road after 
dark who sees in the distance a formi- 
dable looking object. He stops, un- 
certain as to its nature; it may be a 
man lying in wait for him, it may be 
some strange animal, or it may be a 
harmless old stump. As he hesitates 
and wonders, he finally comes to the 
conclusion that it is only a stump. Now 
he believes something; but his faith 
only appears when he walks boldly 
over to the dark object and proves his 
belief to be correct. So I. may believe 
that God is Infinite Goodness, that 
His life is my life, for " in Him I live, 
move and have my being," that all the 
resources of the Infinite are therefore 
at my command; but I only begin to 
exercise faith when I rest back con- 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

fidently in His goodness, when 1 let 
His life flow through me, when I appro- 
priate and make His power my own. 
Most of us are in the attitude of the 
boy who believes it is only a stump, but 
lacks the faith to walk courageously 
forward and put his belief to the actual 
test of experience, out of which alone, 
can knowledge be born. 

Faith, in the sense that we have de- 
fined it, is an absolutely normal, natural 
thing, and common to every life. We 
all live by faith, whether we realize it 
or not. It is this power which has 
made possible every successful career, 
which underlies nine-tenths of all our 
daily experiences, and without which 
we should simply cease to live. 
The popular mind has had the feeling 
that faith was something belonging 
exclusively to religion; and the com- 
mon impression prevails that the so- 
called conflict of Science and Religion 
50 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

grows out of the fact that Religion is 
based on faith, while Science is not. 
But as a matter of fact, the conflict of 
Science with Religion has never been 
between Science and Faith, as I am 
defining it. It has always been between 
Science and beliefs, between Science 
and certain intellectual statements about 
truth, made by the Church or the creed, 
with which the conclusions of Science 
have not agreed. But Science has 
never denied the fact of faith, as a vital 
force in human life. Science itself 
rests on such faith, and in the nature 
of things cannot do otherwise, just as 
truly as does Religion. As Professor 
Royce has abundantly shown, the 
whole structure of Science rests upon 
a body of great faiths, which must 
be trusted if Science is to make 
any advance, but which have not yet 
been proved. For example, the one 
great faith to which every scientist is 
51 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

passionately attached, and in devotion 
to which he does all his work, is the 
faith that Nature is intelligible, that 
in spite of all appearances to the con- 
trary, Nature can be understood. Such 
a faith lies back of all scientific ad- 
vances and discoveries. If you should 
ask the scientist, " What right have 
you to affirm that Nature always acts 
uniformly according to certain fixed 
laws, that the law of cause and effect 
operates everywhere throughout the 
Universe ? " He would probably look 
you blankly in the face and reply, 
" Well, if you do not accept these first 
principles as axiomatic, you know noth- 
ing of the scientific spirit, for the uni- 
formity of Nature's laws is the under- 
lying faith of the scientist." Hence, 
faith is not something peculiar to the 
realm of Religion. The religious man 
employs as his foundation premise in 
the realm of the spirit, the same faith 
52 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

from which the scientist must proceed 
in the realm of matter. 

But what of the ordinary life; is it 
also lived by faith ? By far the major 
part of your experiences every day 
are based on faith. The clothes you 
wear, the food you eat, the medicine 
you take, the car you board on your 
way down-town, the deposits you make 
in the bank, the articles you buy, the 
letters you mail, the journey you take, 
the falling asleep after your busy day 
is over — are all acts involving the 
element of faith — this inner power by 
which you trust yourself absolutely to 
people and things, where full and posi- 
tive knowledge is impossible in advance. 
Life at every step means taking risks; 
it is walking not by sight but by faith. 
Do you know that the car will land 
you safely at your office ? Do you 
know positively that your letter con- 
taining the draft will reach its desti- 
53 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

nation ? Do you know that the train 
you take is going to escape all possible 
accidents ? You act by faith in the 
majority of things you do, not the faith 
that is merely an intellectual belief, 
but the faith that carries with it your 
entire self, and leads you to trust your- 
self absolutely to the object of your 
faith. 

A man, who may be an agnostic in 
his religious thinking, is taken sick. 
He calls his physician up on the phone 
and describes his symptoms. In a 
little while the messenger delivers the 
medicine, and without a question the 
sick man takes it according to direc- 
tions. Is there no faith here — faith 
in the voice heard over the phone, in 
the physician's judgment, in the ac- 
curacy of the drug clerk who put up 
the prescription, in the directions for 
taking, in the power of the medicine 
to help his condition? He may not 
54 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

know what the medicine is, nor the 
laws by which it affects his body, but 
he trusts himself — his very life, to the 
judgment of the physician and the 
power of the drug. Or, he may be in 
some business crisis, where much money 
is involved. He needs counsel and 
advice. He calls up his lawyer, and 
follows his advice implicitly. Is there 
no faith expressed in such an act ? He 
may believe something about the repu- 
tation of this lawyer, he may know him 
well enough personally to feel pretty 
confident that his judgment is good, 
and that he will advise him honestly as 
well as wisely; and yet, when all is 
said and done, he must exercise faith. 
By following the advice given, he 
reveals his faith, and trusts himself to 
the lawyer, the object of his faith. Or, 
he wants to make an investment, and 
after careful scrutiny of various possi- 
ble forms of investment, he finally 
55 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

decides to put his money in a certain 
institution or enterprise. Does he ex- 
ercise no faith ? He may think he has 
examined all the facts thoroughly, and 
so knows just what he is doing, and yet, 
judging from human experience, does 
he ever know positively ? In the crown- 
ing experience of life for the young man 
and woman, as they plight their troth 
before the altar, and declare in God's 
presence that they are taking one 
another for better or for worse, till 
death do them part — is there no faith 
in this supremest enterprise of human 
life ? It matters not how long they 
have been acquainted, do they ever 
know all, and can they have the posi- 
tive knowledge that this union upon 
which they are now entering, will yield 
the love and happiness for which they 
yearn ? 

In the little as well as in the great 
experiences of life, we all walk by faith, 
56 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

and not by sight. To destroy faith 
is to destroy life itself. Humanity, 
without this eternal inner principle of 
faith, would be like a body, out of 
which the soul had for ever fled, and 
man would lack all initiative, all 
courage, all hope, all love; no longer 
would there be any aggressive activity, 
no new enterprises would be launched, 
no new reforms inaugurated, no new 
institutions founded, no further ad- 
vance made in science or philosophy or 
art or music or literature or politics or 
invention; the death-knell of progress 
would be sounded, for it is faith that 
moves the world. 

Who are the great ones of earth, but 
the men and women possessed of such 
a vital faith ? What cared Wendell 
Phillips when they pelted him with 
rotten eggs and met his arguments with 
hisses and derision, as he went through 
this country in the interests of the slave ? 
57 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

He had faith in his enterprise. Multi- 
tudes of people in the North believed 
that slavery was wrong, many could 
have made as effective an appeal, but 
they lacked the faith which made 
Phillips the Prophet of God to his 
generation. What cared William Lloyd 
Garrison, when they dragged him 
through the streets of Boston at the 
heels of the howling mob; how dared 
he face the muskets levelled at his head, 
and even the scaffold itself? He had 
faith in the principles of righteousness. 
When Beecher stood in England be- 
fore those rude and disorderly crowds, 
which were bent upon silencing his 
message, what made him the master of 
that critical situation ? He had faith 
in the great Cause which had taken him 
to England, to make plain the truth to 
our Anglo-Saxon kinsmen. What was 
it that caused Abraham Lincoln to 
tower head and shoulders above his 
58 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

counsellors ? It was his faith in his 
divinely appointed mission. I do not 
know what Lincoln believed theo- 
logically, and I do not care; I only 
know that his life was the noblest, sub- 
limest expression of faith, that this 
country has ever seen. 

Now faith is the same, whether we 
exercise it in things, in enterprises, in 
our fellowmen or in God. The dif- 
ference does not lie in the quality of 
the faith, but in the object toward which 
it is directed. But whatever its object, 
faith is not credulity, it is not intellec- 
tual belief — it is ever and always this 
inner vital force, to whose leading we 
trust ourselves utterly. 

With this conception of faith clearly 
in mind, let us seek its illustration first, 
in the realm of physical healing. In 
every healing cult from the time of the 
ancient Egyptians down to the present, 
faith has been an indispensable factor 
59 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

making for recovery. Whether it has 
been the sacred relics of the mediaeval 
saints, or the modern Roman Catholic 
shrine; the mesmerism of the Eight- 
eenth Century or the " metaphysics " 
of Mrs. Eddy; the insistent prayer of a 
Dr. Dowie, or the treatment by a mental 
healer; the intelligent suggestion of 
the modern Psychologist, or the auto- 
suggestion of the individual himself — 
the faith of the patient has been, if not 
the chief, as least one of the deciding, 
influences. Every physician will admit 
that the drug, without the faith of the 
sufferer in his own recovery, is well- 
nigh useless. In the sphere of the 
physical, results are obtained, — no 
matter what the cause, — if only it 
succeeds in evoking faith. It may be a 
sensible or an absurd object, it may be 
a true or superstitious doctrine, it may 
be a sound or a false philosophy, it may 
be an honest or a fraudulent person, 
60 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

but whatever be the cause, if it only 
succeeds in awakening faith, physical 
benefits are obtained. 

How is it that faith has this power 
over bodily conditions ? Modern Psy- 
chology gives the explanation. It tells 
us " that the processes of the body are 
controlled by the two great nerve sys- 
tems, the cerebro-spinal, and the sym- 
pathetic. Our conscious acts are per- 
formed through the mechanism of the 
brain; but the involuntary physical 
processes, such as the circulation of the 
blood, the assimilation of food, in fact, 
all the vital chemistries of the body, are 
carried on by means of the sympathetic 
nerve system." Fear, doubt, worry, 
disorganize and paralyze the delicate 
machinery of the nervous organism, 
and as a result its various activities are 
disturbed. On the other hand, faith 
stimulates and harmonizes them. It 
has been well said, " there is no tonic 
61 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

so uplifting and renewing as joy and 
confidence, which set in active exer- 
cise every constructive power of the 
body. Faith is a confident and joyous 
emotion. Any object which excites it 
profoundly affects the unconscious 
bodily functions. It sets the body at 
ease and enables its functions to be 
carried on calmly and normally." Such 
is the power of even a blind or credu- 
lous faith in the realm of the physical. 
Such a faith cannot, however, re- 
construct character. " A superstitious 
faith may and does work physiological 
blessing; ethically and spiritually it 
can achieve only harm." 

In the higher realm of the ethical 
and spiritual life, the thing of first 
importance is that one's faith should 
be directed only toward objects of 
supremest worth — the loftiest ideals, 
the noblest purposes, the truest con- 
ceptions of God and Life. This is 
62 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

why, from the time of Jesus Christ, 
man's faith has been turning more and 
more generally towards Him, His ideals, 
His spirit, His purposes in life, His 
ideas of God and man. It may be 
that some are asking " What is the 
value and meaning of faith in Jesus 
Christ ? " If we say the supreme object 
of faith is the realization of God who 
dwells within as well as without, what 
is accomplished by faith in Jesus ? 
The New Testament apparently teaches 
it, and the Church has been preaching 
its necessity for centuries, but what is 
the reason for faith in Him ? Let me 
attempt an answer. 

The greatest influence in all the 
world, for calling out in human life this 
power of faith, is the influence of per- 
sonality. Sermons do not often accom- 
plish it ; reading abstract books seldom 
produces it. The person whose faith 
faculty is aroused and active, so that 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

it is possible for him to advance toward 
ever enlarging success, is generally the 
one who somewhere, somehow, has 
caught the inspiration from another 
personality. It is Carlyle who says, 
that it is never the age that leads in 
progress, but always the individual; 
and he means by that, that the great 
movements of history, making for hu- 
man betterment, centre around great 
personalities. It is her great person- 
alities that give to England's history 
its chief glory. It is the great per- 
sonalities in our own life, past and 
present, that give America her proud 
place among the nations of the w v orld. 
The idea of the supreme power of great 
personalities is the key-thought that 
runs through all of Browning's poetry. 
He perceives, as few of the great poets, 
that life's inspiration comes through its 
great personalities, because they have 
the power of calling out in human lives 
64 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

the faculty of faith, by which men are 
enabled to attain similar heights. 

Your boy, careless and without am- 
bition, reads for the first time the life 
of Garfield, Lincoln or Washington, 
and you begin to see a change in him. 
You say, "At last my boy has awak- 
ened to the meaning and possibilities 
of life." He may not be able to explain 
it himself, but he has come in contact, 
through biography, with a great per- 
sonality, and his faith in his own powers 
and capabilities is called into being. 

Or, you are a young man in business. 
You have been fairly successful, but 
there has been nothing startling, and 
you sometimes wonder whether you 
have really found the right place for 
your abilities. Then, one day, you 
come into personal contact with some 
great personality in the commercial or 
industrial world, and from that meet- 
ing you have gone back to your work 
65 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

with a new vision of your opportunity, 
and a new faith in your power to 
achieve. The influence of another per- 
sonality has awakened within you that 
which was dormant; it has evoked 
the faith by which you climb towards 
success. 

It is not sermons that make people 
good ; it is not reading the Bible merely 
that transforms character. But when 
we come face to face with some life so 
strong, so pure, so self-poised and so 
unselfish, that it puts our meagre attain- 
ments to shame, and yet fires the heart 
with the purpose to reach such beauty 
and symmetry in our own characters, 
then the new faith is born in us, that 
makes all things possible. 

When we realize this truth, I think 
we must see the value of faith in Jesus 
Christ. If Lincoln's personality has 
exerted a wondrous influence in count- 
less lives; if Washington, Gladstone, 
66 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

John Bright, John Howard, Garibaldi, 
David Livingston, Florence Nightin- 
gale and scores of other truly great men 
and women, have been the means of 
awakening in others the same faith 
by which they made life glorious, then 
how much greater must be the power 
of a personality like Jesus Christ, who 
towers head and shoulders above them 
all. 

Let us keep clear the distinction, — 
faith in Jesus Christ is not synony- 
mous with belief in certain things about 
Him. One can believe all the ortho- 
dox doctrines about Jesus Christ, and 
be in no respect influenced by Him. 
What one believes intellectually does 
not necessarily signify nor save. But 
when you come face to face with His 
personality, and feel the constraining 
influence of His life upon you; when 
you stand in reverence before His 
courage, His purity, His unselfishness, 
67 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

His disinterested love, His God-like 
manliness; when what He was, and 
what He did, calls out in you so, intense 
a faith, that you can say: " I may not 
understand all the theology, I cannot 
frame all the definitions, I am not able 
to explain the atonement or the incar- 
nation or the trinity, but I know that 
here is a character worthy of my fol- 
lowing, worthy of my faith, worthy of 
my best, and I yield myself to His 
leadership," — then the real life of 
faith begins for you. Your faith in 
Him is not credulity, it is not hypoth- 
esis, it is no mere intellectual belief; 
it is this inner vital force by which you 
launch your life in the direction He 
points out. We must all believe some- 
thing about Him, if we think at all, 
and if we seek to solve the problem 
which His life presents in history; but 
what I want you to see, is that back 
of all our theology about Jesus Christ 
68 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

lies the one essential need, viz. the 
faith that makes us faithful to Him. 

What can faith in Him mean, but 
faith in His message, faith in His ideals, 
faith in His thoughts concerning God 
and man, and man's relations to his 
fellows ? Merely for a man to say, " I 
have faith in Jesus," would mean no 
more than if one had said, " I have 
faith in Lincoln," without knowing 
or caring about the great principles for 
which Lincoln stood. But when one 
can say, " I have enough faith in Him 
to study His methods, to try to catch 
His viewpoint as He looked out upon 
life and men, to seek to understand His 
thought of God and the future, to 
cherish His ideals and express His 
spirit," then, and not till then, does 
one begin to be saved. 

The real difference between men 
religiously is not, as we commonly 
suppose, the difference in their beliefs; 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

it is rather the difference in the degree 
of faith they possess. Men are not 
separated, from the viewpoint of Eter- 
nity, because they are Catholics or 
Protestants, Jews or Gentiles; because 
they are living in the Occident, where 
Christianity is the prevailing form of 
religion, or living in the Orient, where 
other beliefs prevail; the thing that 
really divides people, is not that some 
believe in the Nicene Creed and some 
in the Westminster Catechism, and 
some in the Thirty-nine Articles. The 
only real distinction between men, in 
this world, or in the world to come, 
depends upon the degree of this inner, 
vital faith which they possess. 

All men have faith, for all must live 
by faith, but some are exercising their 
faith in the direction of these objects 
of supremest worth, while others are 
content to exercise their faith exclu- 
sively in all that pertains to their 
70 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

material existence, forgetting that life 
is vastly more than meat and drink 
and raiment. When Jesus said to the 
disciples of old, "If you had faith as 
a grain of mustard seed, you could say to 
this mountain, be thou removed and cast 
into the depths of the sea, and it would 
obey you," He was evidently speaking 
of a power about which most of us 
know little or nothing; and after 
nineteen hundred years, we are as 
blind to His real meaning as were the 
disciples of old. 

How much real religious faith do we 
possess ? We believe in our heredity 
both physical and spiritual. But our 
real faith is in our physical heredity, 
for scarcely a day passes that we do 
not hear someone say " My weakness, 
physical or moral, is due to inherited 
tendencies, and I must suffer the 
penalty." We have so much faith in 
the power of heredity that we yield 
71 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

ourselves to such thoughts constantly, 
and allow them to control our lives. 
But this is only half the story. Why 
not have faith in your Divine, as well 
as your physical heredity ? You are the 
child of your parents and grandparents, 
but you say you believe you are the 
child of God. Then, exercise faith in 
your inheritance from God, and re- 
member that as God's child, with His 
life flowing through you, you can over- 
come all tendencies to weakness in 
any form. We believe in the power of 
environment, good and bad, but we 
have more faith in the evils of our 
environment, than in its good. We 
think more about the evil, grumble at 
the hardships under which we live 
and rebel against the obstacles in our 
path. Why not have at least as strong 
a faith in the good existing in every 
environment ? Why not look for the 
beautiful, the true, the noble and the 
72 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

encouraging, in our conditions and our 
associates ? We all have faith in the 
contagion of certain diseases. If the 
epidemic comes, or sickness manifests 
itself, we take precautions or send for 
the doctor, and rightly so. Why can 
we not have just as much faith in the 
contagion of good health, good spirits 
and good cheer ? We believe that 
thoughts are living things, and that 
discordant mental moods must inevi- 
tably poison the body, but why not 
show our real faith in these facts, by 
banishing all fear and worry, and living 
constantly in the mental atmosphere 
of harmony and trust and love ? We 
really believe that men have more good 
in them than evil, but our active faith 
is in their dishonesty rather than their 
honesty, in their impurity rather than 
their purity, in their meanness and 
selfishness, rather than in their unself- 
ishness and nobility. In spite of our 
73 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

beliefs, our actual faith is in the evil 
of men's natures, rather than the good ; 
and our distrust and suspicion only 
help to bring out their worst side, 
while discouraging their better selves. 

The fact is, that we are all using the 
power of faith every day we live, but 
alas! not along the lines which might 
yield us the most glorious results. The 
newer thinking of to-day is seeking to 
show us how, by the power of sug- 
gestion and autosuggestion, we can 
vitalize, with strong, intense faith, the 
thoughts and . desires and ideals that 
we want to realize in ourselves; for 
faith is the soul of every suggestion, 
and alone makes it effective in its 
influence on the deeper self within. 

If you really want to see results 
accomplished in yourself; if you are 
bent upon driving out fear and worry; 
if you want to cure the tendency to- 
wards discouragement and despair; if 
74 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

you truly desire to rid yourself of the 
besetting sin, or inherited weakness; 
if you want to make your home a para- 
dise upon earth, and banish for ever 
all the bitter and hateful and unkind 
thoughts; if you want to create about 
yourself such an atmosphere of kindli- 
ness, good cheer and hopefulness, as 
will be an inspiration to others ; if you 
aspire towards the constant unfolding 
of the spiritual consciousness within, 
bringing its vision of God, and its 
realization of the life eternal, — then 
think these lofty ideals, and think them 
constantly, and think them in faith, 
believing they are yours, and you shall 
know the victory " that overcometh the 
world." 

We all know enough, we all believe 
enough, we are all doing enough, — 
the reason our lives are so disappoint- 
ing, is because we realize so little of 
faith's vital meaning and power. A1J 
75 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

the rich resources of the Infinite God 
are at our disposal now and always, if 
by faith we can but appropriate them 
and make them our own, for " in Him 
we live and move and have our being." 
We are like the child, whose father, 
blessed with wealth and overflowing 
with love, builds the magnificent home 
and furnishes it with everything that 
beauty and comfort might suggest, 
and then says to his child, "It is all 
yours, to use and enjoy, and my great- 
est joy is found in your perfect happi- 
ness." But the child goes up to some 
meagrely furnished attic chamber, and 
refuses to come down and enjoy all the 
beauty and comfort provided by the 
father's love, — living in the father's 
house of plenty and yet, holding aloof, 
and through blindness or wilfulness, 
depriving itself of its rightful posses- 
sions. 

Oh! that we might see that God is 
76 



FAITH AS A VITAL FORCE 

never to blame, only we ourselves, if 
our lives are lived in the barren attic 
of loneliness, or the dark cellar of 
despair. God has placed at our dis- 
posal all this splendid equipment for 
physical, mental, moral and spiritual 
symmetry and perfection, which we 
have only to appropriate and make our 
own forever. 

" According to your faith be it unto 
you," is as true to-day as it was when 
Jesus uttered these words. It is as true 
for us as it was for the disciples of old. 
Faith is the master-key that discloses 
the secret of the life of victory over 
things of time and sense. May God 
help us to enter into its deeper mean- 
ing, and realize its power! 



77 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 




HE Ancient Philosopher, who 
said, " As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he," was probably 
not familiar with the principles 
of the newer Psychology . Nevertheless , 
this old Hebrew thinker has stated most 
clearly the fundamental thought of Psy- 
chology as applied both to man's body 
and soul. The most important fact 
which has yet been discovered in regard 
to the sub-conscious mind, is the fact that 
it is suggestible, or in other words, that it 
is subject to influence and direction. In 
this, it does not differ from the conscious 
mind, except that under certain condi- 
tions, it is more amenable to external 
3 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

control, and seems to lie in closer con- 
tact with the physical organism. The 
thought once lodged in the sub-con- 
scious, seems to be more influential 
both in our physical and moral life 
than when it simply holds a place in 
the conscious mind. 

At the very outset, let us free our 
minds of the idea so prevalent, that this 
influence of suggestion is something 
strange or uncanny or even super- 
natural. As a matter of fact, the 
power of suggestion is something 
that we are all using, consciously 
or unconsciously, in the every day 
experiences of life. Your child falls 
and hurts herself, and begins to cry. 
Instantly you help her up and kissing 
the bruised place, you say, " Mother 
has kissed it, and made it well again; " 
and under the influence of your sug- 
gestion, she ceases to cry. If we are 
wise wc do not constantly talk to our 
4 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

children about their innocent wrong- 
doings, but we seek to divert their 
minds from that which we feel is 
wrong or harmful, by suggesting some- 
thing better. You find yourself unable 
to sleep, your mind is filled with dis- 
turbing or anxious thoughts; finally 
you realize that this " does not pay," 
and dismiss from your mind such 
thoughts, and in a few moments are 
asleep. You have diverted your mind 
from the troublesome things, and by 
the power of suggestion have induced 
the sleep needed. In the home there 
is some annoying experience. It may 
be very petty and yet it disturbs. 
You lose your equilibrium for the 
moment, and as you seek to recover 
your self -poise, you say to yourself, 
"It is very foolish to become worried 
or troubled over this thing. I am going 
to forget it." You turn your attention 
to some other task, or you take up a 
5 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

book — anything to divert your thought 
from the annoyance. It is the power of 
suggestion that you use to recover 
mental poise. 

Speaking generally, anything we 
really sense; that is, — see, hear, taste, 
smell or feel — is a suggestion. In the 
psychological sense, suggestion means 
much more than this. It stands for a 
clear, definite perception, thought or 
mental image, of sufficient force to 
make an impression on the sub-con- 
scious mind. In other words, mental 
perceptions, thoughts and desires be- 
come " suggestions " in the technical 
sense, only when lodged in this inner 
self. 

Let me illustrate the difference be- 
tween suggestion, speaking, generally, 
and suggestion in this technical sense. 
You have attended a church service. 
Everything in the place of worship 
has furnished suggestions — thedecora- 
6 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

tions, the stained glass windows, the 
character of the woodwork, the music 
of the choir. Then comes the sermon. 
Suppose the preacher takes some clear- 
cut, definite statement from the Bible, 
such as the words, " The wages of sin 
is death." As he unfolds the meaning 
of the text, suppose that he reiterates 
the text over and over again, illustra- 
ting it first in one way, then in another. 
The service closes, and as you go back 
to your home, gradually the suggestions 
furnished by the music, the decorations, 
the woodwork, or the stained glass 
windows, fade out of your mind. But 
the next day you face some temptation, 
and there comes into your mind, you 
know not just how, the words of the 
text, " The wages of sin is death." It 
causes you to hesitate, and after the 
momentary struggle you turn your 
back upon the temptation . The thought 
of the text has furnished a suggestion 
7 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

so strong, that it has become a control- 
ling factor in your conduct, and it may 
be, influences your life for ever. Of all 
the various suggestions made upon you 
that Sunday morning, the text alone 
has become a suggestion in the tech- 
nical sense, because it was strong enough 
to lodge itself deep down in your sub- 
conscious self. 

Let a man take a retrospect of his 
past, and if he reflects carefully, he 
will find that every serious act of his 
life may be traced back ultimately to 
a suggestion. It may have come as you 
talked with some friend; it may have 
come from some sermon or lecture to 
which you have listened; it may have 
come from the pages of some book that 
impressed you profoundly ; it may have 
come out of some deep experience of 
your life. Every effect has its cause, 
and if it Were always possible for us to 
trace back these serious acts of our 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

lives to their ultimate causes, we should 
find in the last analysis a suggestion, 
whatever its source. Every act of our 
lives, whether for weal or for woe, began 
in the little germ of suggestion. It may 
have unfolded very gradually; in the 
beginning, the germ planted may have 
been so faintly impressed upon you, that 
memory cannot recall the time when 
it was first lodged in the mind; but 
nevertheless, the source of the whole 
range of human conduct, may be traced 
back to these first suggestions. 

So you see Mental Suggestion is not 
a radically new or startling thing. It 
is simply the deeper understanding, and 
the persistent and consistent applica- 
tion of a law of mind, which is as 
old as the human race. Let us turn 
our attention first to the power of sug- 
gestion as we see it operative in our 
general life as human beings. 

There is the suggestive power of 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

Heredity. We are all carrying in our 
bodies, in our moral characters, in our 
temperaments, in our personalities, ele- 
ments which have come to us from the 
past. But in what sense do they come 
from the past ? There is much errone- 
ous thinking about heredity. The in- 
telligent physician will tell you that the 
actual disease is not transmitted, but 
only the tendency toward the disease. 
A weakened nerve condition, or possi- 
bly a defective organism may be trans- 
mitted, but not the disease itself. Let 
it be the tendency to tuberculosis, or 
insanity, or cancer; only under certain 
conditions, by no means invariably, 
does the actual disease manifest itself. 
It is just as true that bad habits are not 
transmitted. There may be handed 
down a weakened will, or an immoral 
tendency, but the actual evil habit is 
not transmitted. That the tendency, 
rather than the thing itself, is trans- 
10 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

mitted, seems to be the general theory 
of Heredity accepted by modern 
scholars. How do the scientists explain, 
then, the appearance in generation 
after generation of certain forms of 
disease ? How can we account for the 
fact that in successive generations we 
see the same immoral tendencies mani- 
festing themselves, as in the famous 
Juke family ? We are convinced today 
that these tragic facts are best explained 
by the power of suggestion. A man 
looks back and says, " My father died 
of tuberculosis," or " My mother died 
of cancer," or, " There is insanity in 
my family." The mental picture of 
the dread disease is in his mind, and 
furnishes the suggestion. Under cer- 
tain conditions, such as a low state of 
vitality, or when in a mood of depres- 
sion, he broods over the fact of the 
family taint, the suggestion becomes so 
strong as to produce conditions that 
11 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

bring about the actual disease. So with 
evil habits. The immoral tendency 
which may be transmitted is developed 
into actual wrong conduct by sugges- 
tion. The child of criminal parents 
who becomes a criminal is not in any 
sense born a criminal, except through 
the power of suggestion. If you have 
studied the subject, you know how tre- 
mendously startling are the facts dis- 
closed as to the power of pre-natal sug- 
gestion in the life of the unborn child. 
Boys and girls, immortal souls, are 
started wrong from infancy, physically, 
morally and spiritually, by the pre- 
natal suggestions of the mother. The 
biographer of Lord Byron tells us that 
the only way to understand his brilliant 
and yet strangely tragic and immoral 
life, is by a careful study of the pre- 
natal suggestions furnished by his 
mother. We take greater pains in 
breeding cattle, than we do in bringing 
12 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

children into the world — to our shame 
be it said. 

Then there is the suggestive power 
of Environment, to which we are all 
more or less susceptible. The furnish- 
ings of the home give to the child un- 
consciously some of the strongest sug- 
gestions. The child, fortunate enough 
to be reared in a home where good 
taste and the love for the truly beautiful 
is expressed, is constantly influenced, 
during these impressionable years, by 
powerful suggestions of beauty and 
good taste. A child reared in other 
surroundings, is influenced by the oppo- 
site suggestions. We know how much 
the mental and spiritual atmosphere of 
the home means to the growing child. 
Let the atmosphere be discordant, 
" like sweet bells out of tune: " where 
there is a clashing of wills, manifesting 
itself in petty quarrels, impatient speech 
or angry gestures, and the child is con- 
13 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

stantly receiving suggestions, which 
almost inevitably flower forth in ignoble 
traits of character. The home, on the 
other hand, whose habitual atmosphere 
is one of harmony and peace, where 
misunderstandings, if they arise, are 
always settled " behind the scenes," 
where parents are wise enough and self- 
controlled enough, never to give way 
to impatience or anger in the presence 
of their children — such a home at- 
mosphere, and there are many such 
" heavenly homes," is silently and yet 
constantly lodging in the child's mind, 
suggestions that must translate them- 
selves into beautiful, noble character 
in after years. 

We recognize certain national traits 
of character as due to the physical 
environment of a people. Some his- 
torians # explain the great differences in 
temperament between nations, chiefly 
by the difference in physical conditions. 
14 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

Cloudy skies or prevailing stormy 
weather, sooner or later make their 
impress upon the life of a people; 
while a country in which the skies are 
generally bright, and where the air is 
clear and bracing, furnishes a mental 
and moral, as well as physical tonic to 
its inhabitants. 

Who can estimate the influence of 
the atmosphere of the school-room upon 
its pupils ? How anxious we are that 
the environment of our children, during 
these school days, shall be right. The 
personality of the teacher, her spiritual 
and mental attitude, can poison irrep- 
arably the atmosphere of the school- 
room, so that we see its injurious effect 
in our children. The teacher who is 
self-controlled, cheerful, hopeful, good- 
natured and sympathetic, can make the 
atmosphere one of the most tremen- 
dously educative factors in the child's 
experience. The deepest lessons of 
15 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

life for young or old, are not the result 
of direct, deliberate instruction; they 
are the lessons we learn indirectly, that 
are taught us by suggestion. 

Our age has gone to the extreme in 
the matter of advertising. It makes no 
difference as to the thing, if only 
advertised properly, it sells. No matter 
how foul or poisonous the ingredients 
in the patent medicine, if only it is 
advertised long enough and ' big " 
enough, it succeeds. We all fall under 
the influence of the big department 
store today through its extensive adver- 
tising. Everywhere, in the daily papers, 
on the board fence, in the cars, and 
worst of all on the face of Nature, we 
are met by the picture or the rhyme or 
the big letters ; and the man who keeps 
up that sort of advertising, by and by 
wins the public. iVs Barnum said," We 
all like to be humbugged," and the 
success of advertising is simply due to 
16 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

suggestion. The cheapness cf any 
particular article, or its unusual value, 
makes its impression; and most of us 
will follow the lure of the advertisement, 
if it be only persuasive enough, and 
spend our money again and again for 
things we really do not need, and that 
we had no idea of buying at the outset. 
One of the most potent suggestions 
in the history of humanity has been that 
furnished by Superstition. It is Less- 
ing who says, " we are all swayed by 
our superstitions, even after we have 
come to understand them." If you 
have read Zola's masterpiece, 
: ' Lourdes," you will recall the tragic- 
ally vivid picture which he draws of 
the Roman Catholic shrine in the little 
French town of Lourdes, and of the 
annual pilgrimage of thousands of 
ailing people from all over Europe. 
He describes with wonderful acuteness 
the psychological influences which are 
17 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

brought to bear upon these invalids, 
and how in many cases genuine cures 
are wrought. How will you explain the 
healing by the Sacred relics or bones in 
China, in India and in Africa ? How 
can you explain the curative powers 
which are experienced by many who 
have touched the holy coat at Treves ? 
It is said that the sick pilgrims at 
Lourdes spend every year from a 
million and a half to two million dollars. 
What is the explanation? The power 
of suggestion. You say it is super- 
stition, and you are right, so far as the 
explanation of the cure is concerned; 
but the Sacred shrine or the bones or 
the relics or the coat or what not, 
furnish the mental suggestion, which 
in many cases undoubtedly is effective 
in working the cure. We need not 
flatter ourselves that we are free from 
all superstition; there may be one of 
my readers who is carrying a chestnut 
18 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

in his pocket or wearing a metal ring 
on some particular finger; or who 
hesitates to sit down to a dinner with 
thirteen, or to make a journey on Friday. 
Superstition in some form persists, 
through the power of suggestion, in 
every civilization and in every religion. 
There is no suggestion in all the world 
so powerful as that furnished by some 
hoary superstition. The new Psychol- 
ogy is the sworn enemy of Superstition. 
It furnishes a scientific explanation of 
many phenomena that in the past have 
been the food upon which superstition 
has flourished. It explodes the super- 
stition of Witchcraft, thus assisting in 
the destruction of a delusion that has 
caused, within the Christian Era, the 
butchery by legal process of fourteen 
millions of hapless and innocent vic- 
tims. 

Visit the famous Continental Spas, 
with their mineral baths, their sulphur 
19 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

and iron springs, where invalids who 
can pay the price, journey every year 
for then health. Ask any of the physi- 
cians at these places whether they really 
think that the benefits, when obtained, 
are due to the mineral water, or to the 
power of suggestion. 

How many times does the doctor 
say to his wealthy patient, " You need 
a sea voyage; if you will only travel 
you will be cured." Do you really 
think there is anything particular help- 
ful in the sea voyage itself, or the travel- 
ling ? These things may be beneficial, 
nevertheless the real fact is, that in this 
way the patient is taken out of the old 
atmosphere, and his mind diverted; in 
other words, a new line of suggestions 
is furnished that in many cases work 
the cure. The sea voyage, or the jour- 
ney, is the excuse for the suggestion, or 
the mechanical means by which the 
suggestion is made to the mind. The 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

chief thing needed, in all such cases, is 
to change the mental atmosphere of 
the patient. 

Suggestive therapeutics or Psycho- 
therapy is claiming more and more of 
our attention today. Its principles 
underlie all these various healing cults, 
and play a tremendous part in the 
regular practice of medicine; and as 
we shall see, the great truth upon which 
Psychotherapy depends, is the power of 
suggestion. 

The Professor of Healing, what- 
ever may be his special school, who 
claims that all means are to be dis- 
regarded, is absolutely wrong. I can- 
not believe that any intelligent man has 
a right to ignore any of the great means 
by which human suffering and disease 
can be alleviated or cured; but for a 
man to deny that there are mental 
and spiritual healing powers, is just as 
absurd and wrong. We must admit 
21 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

frankly that drugs do have a chemical 
effect; we cannot pronounce worthless, 
the rubbing of the masseur or the 
manipulations of the osteopath; the 
hydropath deserves some credit; diet, 
exercise and recreation all play their 
part. All these means are beneficial, 
they are factors in making for all-round 
physical well-being. But in the light 
of today's knowledge, we must recognize 
that along with all these agencies, there 
is always present the power of sugges- 
tion, in the influence of the mind over 
the body. Just how great that power 
is, no one perhaps can dogmatically 
assert today. That it is greater than 
we have ever dreamed, is without 
question. The future alone will reveal 
the extent of its power. 

Another way in which we witness 
this power of suggestion, is in the forma- 
tion of public opinion. Public opinion 
is the concensus of the opinions of a 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

community, a city, a nation, or an age; 
but what creates public opinion on any 
question? We know how the strong, 
positive, vigorous thinking of a few 
minds, is able to create public sentiment 
in any community, or age. Public 
opinion is created not by the rank and 
file of men, but rather by the positive 
thinking of the few, who hold places of 
influence or positions of leadership. 
The times in the life of a people, when 
some great wave of feeling sweeps over 
a community, are due to mental influ- 
ences affecting the mass of men. This 
is why the financial panic of 1907-08 
was described, and rightly, as a" psy- 
chological panic." 

How often, in a political campaign, 
do we witness a complete change of 
sentiment as respects different candi- 
dates. In the recent New York State 
election, there was such a complete 
reversal of sentiment within two weeks, 
23 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

that New York State saved itself from 
lasting disgrace by sending Governor 
Hughes back to Albany. What caused 
the change of sentiment ? My own 
opinion is that it was due to nothing 
less than the fact that here and there, 
throughout the State and the country, 
there was the strong thinking, the 
positive vigorous desire, on the part of 
high-minded men and women. 

In the recent play, called " The 
Witching Hour," the author illustrates 
the same power of the thinking of peo- 
ple, even to the extent of influencing 
the decision of a jury in a criminal case. 
Whether such power is possible may 
be questioned; but nevertheless, we 
understand today that public feeling 
and sentiment, social, political and 
religious, is due primarily to the fact 
that a number of individuals are holding 
certain thoughts, have taken a certain 
mental attitude towards the questions 
24 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

involved, and their thoughts go forth 
in great thought vibrations, to influence 
and even to radically change the think- 
ing of multitudes of other minds. 

The same phenomena are to be ob- 
served in times of religious revival, 
especially among ignorant or highly 
emotional people, such as the coloured 
race in the South. The psychologist 
explains rationally many of the phe- 
nomena which are witnessed at such 
a time. The muscular trance, the 
experience of ecstasy which the negro 
often reaches in religious meetings, par- 
ticularly if they are protracted long 
enough, is nothing more than the result 
of suggestion. We have attributed, 
even in our more settled communities, 
many of the experiences of religious 
revivals to the spirit of God, when they 
are really due to the power of mental 
suggestion. A very interesting book 
has been published recently by Pro- 
25 



*THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

fessor Davenport on " The Psycho- 
logical Element in Religious Revivals." 
It is immensely revealing along this 
line, and shows what a tremendous 
part suggestion plays, when people are 
brought together in large companies 
under emotional stress. 

Enough has been said, as respects 
suggestion in its general aspect. It is 
nothing new or startling. It is a power 
which we all, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, employ every day and almost 
every hour. We are all susceptible to 
it, to a greater or less degree. Let me 
refer briefly to the workings of the Law 
of Suggestion, in its more technical 
sense. We have already seen that in 
the psychological sense, suggestion is a 
thought or mental image, held so 
definitely and intensely in the conscious 
mind, that it becomes lodged in the 
sub-conscious self. There are three 
essentials to the successful lodging of a 
26 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

suggestion. (1) There must be a clear 
and definite idea of what you want to 
do. If you are the parent or the teacher, 
you must clearly formulate in your own 
mind a mental picture of the end you 
desire to attain. Suppose the child 
shows a tendency towards dishonesty, 
which you desire to overcome. Clearly, 
in your own mind, you must make the 
mental picture of the honest boy. 
Exclude from your mind every other 
thought about your child, for the time 
being. (2) There must be a series of 
suggestions or mental pictures given 
the child, adapted to the end which 
you have in view. (3) There must 
be the regular daily repetition of 
the mental picture or the suggestion. 
Let me illustrate by a concrete case 
the workings of these principles. Pro- 
fessor N. N. Riddell, one of the pioneers 
in the practical application of these 
psychological principles to child training, 
27 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

tells of his experience in a California 
town several years ago, where he was 
delivering a course of lectures. He 
wanted a boy to distribute hand -bills. 
He finally found one, but as he was 
about to employ him, he was told that 
the boy was notoriously dishonest. 
His reputation was so fixed in the 
community that the storekeepers always 
kept their eyes on him when he went 
by, and if he came inside they watched 
him every moment. The boy's own 
mother told the Professor that he was 
incorrigible, and that she had been 
obliged to send him away from home 
when he was only nine years of age. 
Professor Riddell hired the boy and 
then talked frankly with him. He said, 
" Now I am going to be honest with 
you, and you are going to be honest with 
me and we are going to be honest with 
everybody else." In the course of the 
conversation, he asked him, if he had 
28 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

ever been tempted to do anything dis- 
honest. The boy confessed he had. 
Little by little the boy told of how he 
had stolen repeatedly. Then the Pro- 
fessor, without attempting to rebuke 
him harshly, said, " In your heart you 
are an honest boy, you really want to 
do the right thing, and I am going to 
trust you implicitly and we are going 
to get along all right together; you are 
not going to steal from me, any more 
than I am going to steal from you, and 
you are not going to steal from any one 
else." As he talked the little fellow 
burst into tears, and then, while in the 
tender, sympathetic mood, the Pro- 
fessor said, " Now you are an honest 
boy, you do not do dishonest things, 
you will never steal again." Several 
times during the day, he talked with 
him quietly in the same strain, that is, 
repeated the suggestion of honesty. 
Within forty-eight hours he sent him 
29 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

to the bank with a ten-dollar bill, to 
get the change. His mother had said 
that formerly he could not be trusted 
with a dime. He worked with the Pro- 
fessor for three weeks, and there was 
not a single sign of any dishonest or 
thieving tendency, and the Professor 
says in his published lecture, that the 
last he heard the boy was absolutely 
cured of his dishonesty. This illus- 
trates the workings of these three 
essential principles: there must be 
first the clear-cut idea of what you want 
to do; then there must be the series 
of mental pictures or images adapted 
to the end you have in view; lastly 
there must be the constant repetition 
of the suggestion. v 

Practical experiments have demon- 
strated beyond question, the efficiency 
of suggestion. The mind of the dull- 
ard may be gradually awakened, vi- 
cious and cruel tendencies can be o ver- 
so 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

come, the elements of virtue, purity, 
honesty or kindness may be so estab- 
lished in the sub-conscious mind, as 
to make them the controlling factors in 
character. Some lives are much more 
susceptible and responsive to the in- 
fluence of suggestion than others, but 
all can be affected. Some can be 
changed much more rapidly than others, 
but patient, persistent effort, wisely 
directed, is sure to bring results in all. 

There is another form of suggestion, 
known as auto-suggestion, where the 
suggestion does not come from outside, 
but rather from one's own conscious 
mind. This is the highest form of the 
operation of this wonderful Law of 
Suggestion, for when we can clearly 
understand the law and its method of 
operation within ourselves, then we can 
create the thought, we can produce the 
impression, we can lodge in the sub- 
conscious mind the suggestion that will 
31 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

work out within ourselves, physical 
health, mental power and moral 
strength. 

How mighty the force that is resident 
in all our thoughts ! We are only begin- 
ning to understand the potentiality of 
thoughts, — the thoughts we carry with 
us, and the thoughts of those about us. 
I am not referring now to the power of 
one mind, to deliberately convey 
thought to another mind, according 
to the established laws of telepathy. I 
am speaking rather of the influence of 
the thoughts that we unconsciously 
carry with us and their power over 
other lives. There are some people, 
who, at first meeting, attract us, and 
others who repel us. Every person 
carries about himself a thought aura, 
which is made up of the essence of the 
thoughts of his mind. The psychic 
tells us that the thought aura is apparent 
to his clairvoyant vision, and can de- 
32 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

scribe the various shades of colour 
discernible. Here are fifty or more 
men and women at a reception, or 
social gathering. Have you ever noticed 
how, after an hour or so, these people 
will be broken up into little groups ? 
And if you have walked among the sev- 
eral groups and listened to the conversa- 
tion, you know how each group has a 
distinct individuality of its own. Over 
here, a company of men absorbed in 
business conversation ; yonder, a group 
of men interested especially in political 
topics; in another corner a company 
of ladies discussing perhaps some social 
gossip. What is it that divides a 
company of people into these several 
groups, and gives to each group a dis- 
tinctive character of its own ? It is the 
law that " like attracts like." It is be- 
cause every one of us carries with him 
a mental atmosphere, from which are 
constantly going forth vibrations, the 
33 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

character of which depends upon the 
thoughts we cherish. We may keep 
our lips sealed tight, we may never 
whisper even in the still hour of the 
night, the character of our thought to 
others; but, nevertheless, the tremen- 
dous power of just our thoughts, for 
good or for evil, cannot longer be 
questioned. It is true beyond contra- 
diction, that our thinking makes us 
the men and women that we are, creates 
not only in us, but about us, a certain 
atmosphere ; so that as we move among 
men, whether we deliberately intend it 
or not, by virtue of the mental atmos- 
phere we carry with us, we are either 
making them better and nobler, or else 
injuring them irreparably. 

The one who holds the positive, 
hopeful, confident, good-natured, 
kindly, courageous mental attitude, is 
the person who inevitably radiates 
sunshine and gladness, good health 
34 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

and cheer, confidence and happiness, 
wherever he may go. The one who 
holds the negative, despondent, fearful, 
timorous, anxious or sorrowful mental 
attitude, whether he intends it or not, 
is, by the law of suggestion, creating 
forces that make people sad arid dis- 
couraged, fearful and anxious. We 
may never utter a word, but, "As a 
man thinketh in his heart so is he." 
Every thought you think possesses this 
suggestive power. It sows its seed in 
every life you touch. It makes the 
atmosphere of the home a blessing or 
curse. How earnestly desirous we 
should be of understanding the poten- 
tiality of our thinking, and these laws 
by which it operates for the upbuild- 
ing, the transforming and the ennobling 
of other lives, as well as our own! 



35 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 




AUTO-SUGGESTION 

O the one who has arrived at a 
true understanding of his own 
being and the laws of his own 
nature, is reserved the proud 
distinction of consciously making him- 
self what he will. In the lower animals, 
and even among the majority of men, the 
work of developing the mind and build- 
ing up the character, is largely performed 
by outside forces — environment, asso- 
ciation, and suggestions of various kinds. 
But the developed man knows that he 
himself has a hand in his own up- 
building. Man is coming to his own 
at last. No longer in theory, but in 
actual fact, man is becoming the Master 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

of his Fate. Man is his own educator; 
man is his own moral and religious 
teacher; man is his own physician. 
We need to keep in mind constantly 
that the wonderful power of which 
man has become conscious today, be- 
comes effective only as the right 
thoughts, the right impulses and the 
right desires are transmitted from his 
conscious mind to the hidden depths 
of the life within. 

As we have already seen, there are 
three general forms of suggestion. There 
are the innumerable suggestions from 
without, to which we are all more or 
less subject: heredity and environ- 
ment, physical and mental, the country 
in which we live, the Spirit of the Age 
into which we are born, the friends 
with whom we associate, the books 
we read, all the varied experiences 
through which we pass, are constantly 
furnishing us with suggestions, which 
40 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

have a greater or lesser influence upon 
our lives and characters. 

A second form of suggestion to be 
briefly mentioned is Hypnotic Sugges- 
tion. We are all familiar with the mar- 
velous power of Hypnotism and have 
doubtless witnessed many illustrations 
of its working. Professor John Duncan 
Quackenbos in his book entitled " Hyp- 
notism in Mental and Moral Culture " 
defines Hypnotism as follows: " Hyp- 
notism, or hypnotic sleep, implies a 
mind condition in which the mental 
action and the will-power of a sensitive 
subject are under the control of an 
operator who has induced the state." 
The Scientist and the physician have 
been investigating for some years in 
this interesting field. Hypnosis has 
been found most efficacious in the so- 
called functional nervous diseases. All 
forms of hysteria are amenable to 
hypnotic treatment. Chronic alcohol- 
41 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

ism has also been overcome by hyp- 
notism. In spite of what has been 
accomplished in this field, however, I 
cannot refrain from uttering in this 
connection a word of solemn warning. 
There seems to be a great confusion in 
the average mind, as to Hypnotism and 
its results, beneficial or otherwise. In 
the hands of the skilled scientist or the 
conscientious physician, hypnotism may 
exert, for the time being, a beneficial 
influence; yet even then it presents 
grave dangers. Among my friends is 
a man who has gained eminence in the 
field of hypnotic suggestion. He is a 
skilled physician, who has been un- 
usually successful in the treatment of 
nervous and mental disorders by hyp- 
notism. After about three years of 
successful practising, he abandoned 
entirely the use of hypnotism in his 
work and absolutely refuses today to 
employ its power. In conversation 
42 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

with him I asked the question " why ? " 
He replied — and I know no man more 
conscientious — "I simply came to 
understand that it did more harm than 
good to the individual whom I hypno- 
tized." I think you will see in a mo- 
ment just why. Hypnotic suggestion 
implies that some will-power outside, 
steps in and takes possession of your 
own will, and dethrones for the time 
being your reason. While under the 
influence of this external control, you 
are the helpless subject. We may have 
confidence in the scientist or the physi- 
cian, but I want to remind you that the 
great citadel of man's soul lies in his 
own self-co?itrol, and when we surren- 
der that control to another person, I 
care not who it is, we are surrendering 
our God-given and inalienable birth- 
right, — the will, — and are by just that 
much weakening our power to control 
ourselves. Every time the patient 
43 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

comes back to the Hypnotist he falls 
more easily under his control, until, 
as I have witnessed myself, in the case 
of this professional friend, he simply 
had to look at some of his patients, 
and they would instantly pass into the 
hypnotic state. No wonder he said 
; ' Any power which gets possession of 
another soul to the degree that I have 
gained control of some of my patients, 
is a dangerous power, and I dare not 
continue to employ it." 

If this is the experience of the con- 
scientious Physician, what shall we say 
of that large class, who use this power 
for the purposes of revenue only ? 
Hypnotism has been " popularized " 
in recent years and made the basis of 
entertainments of various kinds. There 
is a class of magazines that are full of 
advertisements to the effect that some 
self-styled " Professor " offers a Course 
of Lessons, in the " Art of Hypnotism." 
44 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

From inquiries made, it has been 
discovered that these " Professors " 
are doing a thriving business. Simply 
to read through any such advertise- 
ments with a knowledge of what is 
involved in hypnotism, is enough to 
make one tremble at the possibilities 
presented for injury and even crime. 
There is no language strong enough to 
denounce such dastardly criminals and 
charlatans. But the ruined lives and 
shattered reasons of those who have 
been subjects of hypnotic suggestion 
in all innocence, should keep us from 
ever consenting to surrender one iota 
of our self-control to another will. 

The third form of suggestion, and 
the one that chiefly concerns us now, is 
Auto-suggestion. This is the highest 
form of suggestion, because it proceeds 
from within, from one's own conscious 
mind. To understand and operate the 
law of auto-suggestion, means to attain 
45 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

the highest degree of self-control and 
self-mastery. This power is resident 
within every one of us. The sub-con- 
scious mind may be likened to a vast 
warehouse which we, wisely or foolishly, 
are constantly filling with material of 
various kinds. We are continually 
storing up thoughts, desires, and am- 
bitions, in this " great within," and 
they are being transformed constantly 
into life and character, whether we will 
or no. The great responsibility rests 
upon us, — we, the individual egos, 
who stand back of both conscious and 
sub-conscious minds, — to see to it 
that only the right material goes into 
the storehouse, that only the right 
thoughts and desires and impulses are 
allowed to make their deep impression 
on the hidden sources of our lives. It 
is for the sake of making every man and 
woman independent of other influences, 
and teaching each individual how to 
46 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

use the law, and employ these forces 
for himself, that we are interested 
in obtaining a right understanding of 
what is meant by auto-suggestion. 

The psychological principle underly- 
ing auto-suggestion is precisely the 
same that underlies suggestion in gen- 
eral. It simply means that for the time 
being we disassociate in our minds cer- 
tain thoughts from other thoughts. We 
deliberately narrow, by our own will- 
power, the range of our consciousness, 
so that certain ideas are retained, and 
a great mass of other ideas are excluded. 
This is the principle upon which sug- 
gestion everywhere works. By shutting 
out certain ideas, we are enabled to 
concentrate the mind's attention upon 
the ideas which we choose to retain in 
the field of consciousness. 

The range of illustrations of the work- 
ings of auto-suggestion, is wide indeed. 
The power and the value of the old 
47 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

amulets and charms worn by the primi- 
tive savage, lay simply in this: They 
furnished the auto-suggestion, they were 
the symbols of an inner mental state, 
the objects to which the yearning or 
desire could attach itself. The same 
is true of the Christian Crucifix or the 
Roman Catholic beads. Religion in 
all its forms is filled with the same 
power of auto-suggestion. During the 
Middle Ages, you know how marvelous 
are the well-authenticated stories of 
miracles and wonders which history 
has not until recently been able to 
explain. Many of these, which have 
been rejected by the scientific mind as 
incredible, and accepted by the religious 
mind as miraculous, are now seen to be 
neither one nor the other, but realities 
to be explained by psychical processes, 
not understood at the time. Perhaps 
the most striking of these phenomena is 
that of Stigmatization. St. Francis of 
48 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

Assisi furnishes the earliest historical 
case. His contemplation of the wounds 
of Jesus was of such an intense charac- 
ter, and so long continued, that his 
own body finally presented appearances 
similar to the mental picture, which 
he had so long entertained. Not only 
were there similar wounds in his hands 
and feet, and side, but the appearance 
of nails in the wounds was so realistic 
that we are told, after his death, the 
attempt was made to draw them out. 
There have been something like ninety 
or a hundred cases of a similar charac- 
ter since his day, and the same experi- 
ence is paralleled in our own time in 
the case of certain hysterical patients. 
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, " The 
Scarlet Letter," we have a description 
of a phenomenon, in the scarlet letter 
emblazoned on the breast of Arthur 
Dimmesdale, which modern psychology 
is perfectly able to accept as credible. 
49 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

During the recent Spanish- American 
War the following story is told, by a 
prominent physician who served at the 
time in one of the hospitals in the South. 
In passing through the typhoid fever 
ward, he came to the bedside of a 
soldier who had been very low, and after 
examining him, said to the nurse, " He 
cannot live another hour." The sick 
man heard the words. As the doctor 
turned away, he raised himself up in 
bed and fairly shouted out, ' I will 
live," — and he did. What was it but 
the antagonism aroused in this dying 
man by the assertion of the doctor that 
he was doomed to die, which started 
such a strong counter auto-suggestion 
that the man was able to recover ? 
Every physician can tell you of cases 
in his own experience, of those who have 
been on the border land between this 
world and the next, where there seemed 
no possible chance for recovery; and 
50 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

then, in that critical hour, something 
has occurred, — perhaps the arrival of 
some dear one from a distance, or the 
receiving of some letter or telegram of 
hopeful assurance and encouragement, 
that has turned the tide of the ebbing 
life; and the person who the doctor 
felt could not be saved by any human 
means, has slowly returned to health. 
It is the power of auto-suggestion work- 
ing through the sub-conscious mind 
upon the body and bringing back the 
stream of health and vitality. 

The strongest auto-suggestions that 
the conscious mind is constantly fur- 
nishing, are those that proceed from 
our habitual or prevalent thoughts and 
desires. We can divide man's thinking 
into two general classes, harmonious 
thinking and discordant thinking. By 
harmonious thinking, we mean all 
thoughts of peace and quietness, good 
cheer, and hopefulness, courage, kind- 
51 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

liness, sympathy, confidence and trust. 
These are all harmonious thoughts and 
make directly for the harmonious life, 
physical, mental, moral and spiritual. 
Among discordant thoughts, we must put 
first of all, anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, 
lust, greed, cruelty and all malevolent 
thoughts. To these must be added 
thoughts of extreme grief and sorrow 
with their attendants, regrets and dis- 
appointments. Here belong also fear, 
doubt and uncertainty, all worry and 
anxiety, depression and despair. We 
must also include in this class all self- 
condemnatory thoughts, disparage- 
ment, self-belittling, with their accom- 
panying self -consciousness. All sinful 
or erroneous thoughts are discordant 
in their nature, and must inevitably, 
by the law of auto-suggestion, work 
discord in the whole range of man's 
being. 

The world has long been interested 
52 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

in right and wrong actions. We are 
at last discovering that all our actions 
go back for their sources to right and 
wrong thinking. Prof. Elmer T. Gates, 
of Washington, has made a number of 
experiments running through a period 
of many years, with people while under 
the influence of harmonious thoughts, 
and again with the same persons under 
the influence of some of these discordant 
thoughts, with strikingly significant re- 
sults. He has shown unquestionably 
that the man thinking discordant 
thoughts is affected throughout his 
entire organism. His conclusions are 
very definite: " Every mental activity 
creates a definite chemical change and 
a definite anatomical structure in the 
being who exercises the mental activity ;" 
and again, " The mind of man can by 
an effort of the will, properly directed, 
produce measurable changes in the 
chemistry of the secretions and ex- 
53 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

cretions of the body." Experiments 
comparing agreeable exercises with 
those not so agreeable, prove that the 
activities in which men take pleasure, 
set in motion a richer supply of blood 
than those attendant upon discordant 
thinking. We have all had personal 
experience with some of these discord- 
ant types of mind. In business you 
may be associated with one whose 
habitual thinking is suspicious or dis- 
trustful, and you know how uncertain, 
or depressed or even angry you feel, 
especially if your nature is quite the 
opposite. Or when we go into the 
presence of great sorrow or grief, we 
feel how these discordant thoughts have 
for the time being, at least, changed 
by their suggestions, the . characters 
and even the countenances of our 
friends, and we seek to shake from our- 
selves the heavy pall of sorrow. In the 
same way, the person whose thinking 
54 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

is lustful, is gradually transformed into 
the sensual character, who repels us 
the moment we come into his presence. 
The important thing to remember 
is this: That by the power of auto- 
suggestion, we are enabled to hold 
whatever quality of thought we choose. 
We can banish from our minds the 
anger, the hatred, the jealousy — 
thoughts that we know to be so harm- 
ful; we can banish from our minds 
these thoughts of sorrow, and regret 
and disappointment, which are so de- 
pressing to ourselves and to all who 
come near us : we can banish, if we will, 
the thoughts of worry and anxiety, that 
are the direct cause of so much nervous 
breakdown in this hurrying, bustling 
age of ours. We must never forget that 
in the crafts which we are sailing over 
Life's sea, you and I are the steersmen, 
not someone else, unless we ignorantly 
or foolishly surrender the helm to other 
55 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

hands. This sub-conscious self within 
us is no navigator; it does not under- 
stand seamanship; it cannot see the 
headlands or the reefs jutting out be- 
yond. It may be likened to the brave 
men down in the hold of the battleship 
who keep the engines going, but who 
have no eyes or ears for what is going 
on above. So this sub-conscious self, 
without eyes or ears or the power of 
inductive reasoning, down there at the 
centre of our being, takes what we are 
constantly sending, and with these 
materials does faithfully its appointed 
task. We are the steersmen, we stand 
on deck where we can scan the horizon, 
and descry the dangerous reefs and 
treacherous shoals. We can, with steady 
hand and strong nerve, keep our 
vessel headed right if we will, for we 
are the helmsmen. God has placed the 
conscious mind in every life as the great 
guardian of the inner self, and says to 
56 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

it, "Your duty is to watch zealously 
the entrance into your life. It is for 
you, and you alone, to say what in- 
fluences and forces shall go into the 
secret depths of your being." Environ- 
ment, heredity, the suggestions from 
association, all the influences that come 
from these various sources into our 
lives, we are to meet at the entrance to 
the conscious mind, and we must say 
to some, " You may enter," and to 
others, " You may not enter." As we 
value our Eternal Selves, we must 
stand there on guard, ceaselessly vigi- 
lant, always alert and ever ready to 
decide that only the right thought, the 
right impulse and the right desire, 
shall be allowed a place within the 
mind. 

But you say, " Aye, there's the rub; 

how can I control my thinking ? I have 

learned enough about the operations 

of the mind, to know that discordant 

57 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

thinking, through the power of auto- 
suggestion, is absolutely dangerous to 
life at every point; I have gone far 
enough to know that if my life is to 
realize the highest and best, it must be 
a life in which harmonious thinking 
prevails. But how can I command my 
thoughts ? " As a young man said to 
me recently, " I go along all right for 
a few days and then I find myself 
plunged into the deepest kind of de- 
pression." I asked him if he had ever 
tried to locate the cause of these moods. 
He replied, " It has been that way with 
our family always, my mother was just 
like that, as was her mother before her." 
I said to him, " On ycur own admission 
then, it is due to suggestion; you are 
constantly saying to yourself, ' This 
moody depression is in my family, my 
mother and grandmother experienced 
it, and of course, I have to suffer from 
it in the same way.' Did you ever think 
58 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

that it was possible for you, by auto- 
suggestion, to neutralize that suggestion 
of heredity in your life and change those 
conditions ? " He replied, " I never 
thought of it before, but I believe you 
are right and I am going to try." An- 
other man said to me recently, " I am 
the slave of an appetite. When the 
impulse comes upon me to drink liquor, 
I am obliged to yield. How am I going 
to control such thoughts and impulses 
so that they shall not control me ? " 
This is the really pertinent question for 
every one of us. 

There are two ways by which it is 
possible to control our thoughts and so 
make sure that the thinking of our 
minds shall be harmonious rather than 
discordant. The first is the direct and 
simple method. It is this, stop thinking 
discordant thoughts. When we have 
come clearly to see that the real wrong 
resides potentially in the thought; that 
59 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

we suffer physically, morally and 
spiritually because of the character of 
our thinking, then nobody but an 
ignoramus or a fool would do anything 
else but stop thinking that kind of 
thought. If it is hatred, stop thinking 
hate; if it is jealousy, stop thinking 
jealousy; if it is lust, stop thinking 
lustful thoughts; if it is grief or worry 
or fear, banish such thoughts from the 
mind. When we know that such 
thoughts tend to check the respiration, 
to change the character of the blood, 
to manifest themselves chemically in 
the secretions or excretions of the body 
— if they have such an actual physical 
effect as that, to say nothing of their 
effect on character, then in God's name, 
stop thinking these thoughts. But you 
say, " That sounds very simple, but it 
is not quite so easy to practise it." I 
grant you that while it may be an easy 
thing for the man who has the strongly 
60 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

developed will, the difficulty is that 
most of us have been thinking wrongly 
for so long, and know so little about 
will-power, that we do not find it an 
easy thing to stop thinking the dis- 
cordant thoughts even when we have 
learned that they are harmful in the 
extreme. So for most people, as yet, 
this method usually meets with appar- 
ent failure. 

The second method is that of sub- 
stitution. There are two ways of empty- 
ing a glass of water. You can turn it 
bottom side up, when the water of 
course will flowout; or you can drop 
shot into it, one by one, until gradually 
the shot expel the water. It is the 
method of substituting something else. 
So, as you seek to change the character 
of your thinking, if you do not succeed 
at first by sheer will-power, then try 
the substitution method, and put some- 
thing else into your mind at once. 
61 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

Divert your mind from the discordant 
thought by thinking in other channels. 
Do not wait a moment, when the wrong 
thought gets into your mind, but turn 
to the magazine or the book, and read 
until your mind is filled with other 
thoughts. Or, take up some task that 
calls for all your energy, and forces 
you to concentrate your mental activi- 
ties along other lines. It may be a 
little difficult at first, but I want 
to tell you, on the experience of multi- 
tudes of men and women, one of these 
two methods, if persevered in, will 
succeed in every life. *The trouble is, 
we all dally with thoughts that we 
know should not be entertained by the 
mind a moment, and sometimes, I fear, 
we rather enjoy them than not, for- 
getting the tremendous power they 
wield in our lives. 

I grow so weary of the way men and 
women often excuse themselves, as I 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

remember how these same people talk 
to their children. If your child, in 
the presence of something that you 
know he ought to do, says " I can't," 
you reply, " There is no such word as 
* can't ' in the dictionary, my child." 
You do not let him live in the realm of 
" I can't." You tell him over and 
over again that what must be done, 
can be done, and that he has the power 
to go ahead and do it. But when we 
pass out of childhood, and as mature 
beings, face these great fundamental 
problems of our natures, we are worse 
than the children. I talked with a 
man recently, who is trying to break 
an evil habit. Over and over again he 
wailed out, " I have tried, but I can't." 
I care not how strong the habit, or of 
how long standing, I care not how 
tightly the chains of discordant think- 
ing are fastened upon us, — the first 
thing we must recognize, is the fact 
63 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

that within our deep essential selves, 
we are one with the Infinite God ; that 
no sin on our part, no wrong thinking 
of ours, has ever wholly separated us 
from Him; that we are essentially 
divine, and that therefore we can, we 
can do the thing that we want to 
do, and that we know we ought to 
do. I wish sometimes that these chil- 
dren of ours who have heard our in- 
structions so often along this line, could 
just turn about and give us a little of 
the same advice. This is how Chris- 
tian Science, Metaphysical teachings, 
theosophical doctrines, and other so- 
called modern cults, which many people 
have been studying more or less care- 
fully in the last few years, have brought 
new power into many lives ; they have 
furnished a method by which the 
will-power has been cultivated, and 
people who once said, " I can't do this 
thing," have learned that they can do 
64 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

it, and have thereby attained the de- 
sired end. 

Let me make just one or two practi- 
cal suggestions as to the method of 
using this power of auto-suggestion in 
our daily lives. In the writings of 
Henry Wood, one of the sanest thinkers 
along new thought lines, a most prac- 
tical method is described under what 
he calls " The Power of Ideal Sug- 
gestion." If a man is seriously con- 
cerned in the matter of developing 
himself physically, mentally, morally 
and spiritually, he certainly ought to 
be willing to give a little time to it. 
Let one set aside half an hour or 
even fifteen minutes every day. Let 
him go into some room by himself, 
where he can be undisturbed, quiet 
and alone ; let him get just as far away 
from the sights and sounds of ordinary 
life as possible. Then let him take 
some simple statement of truth, for 
65 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

example, " God is here," or " I am 
God's child; " or if he is the victim of 
some habit, just the statement, " I am 
free," or "I can and I will;" and 
as he sits alone in the silence, let him 
fill his mind full of this one thought. 
You might say, " Intellectually, this 
sounds very foolish; these are trite 
statements, which we may believe or 
not, but after all what good is to be 
gained by just repeating over to one's 
self these words ? ' ' The conscious mind 
sees no use in it whatsoever, but I want 
to tell you it is truly scientific, for it is 
the practical application of the great 
law of auto-suggestion, it is the true 
method by which we reach the sub- 
conscious self. Remember, this sub- 
conscious mind is deep in the centre 
of our complex life; it does not see 
w T hat we see, or hear what we hear, it 
is waiting to receive the material that 
we send down, and every time you 
66 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

say " God is here," " God is here," 
" God is here," filling your mind with 
the thought implied in these words, 
you are sending down the suggestion 
that must take rootage, because of the 
constant reiteration, in the very depths 
of your being. Do this not once but 
every day, and after a time, note the 
result. 

But you say that seems absurd. 
Stop a moment. Do we really want 
to rid ourselves of these discordant 
thoughts ? Are we in dead earnest 
about it ? You may have been a pro- 
fessing Christian, a follower of that 
Matchless Life, for many years, and 
yet you are conscious that there is 
precious little in your life to remind 
others of Him; how earnest is your 
desire to become " perfect even as He 
is perfect ? " I am not thinking now of 
coarse or flagrant sins, but are we always 
self -poised, are we as kindly and sympa- 
67 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

the tic, are we as cheerful and hopeful, 
are we as patient and trustful, as we 
ought to be, if we are seeking to follow 
Him in daily life? If you are going 
along a country road and a pebble gets 
into your shoe, you take the shoe off 
and toss the pebble aside; in other 
words, you remoye the cause of the dis- 
comfort at any cost. When we know 
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that our 
thoughts are injuring our lives, for 
time and eternity, and that through 
us they are hurting all other lives about 
us, ought we not to be just as willing 
to pay any price, to get rid of the 
discordant and harmful thought ? Let 
a man take the fifteen minutes, as many 
a busy man today is doing, and get 
away somewhere from the noise and 
turmoil of it all, and just say to himself, 
" I am God's child, I am God's child, 
I am God's child." No man can do 
this very many days, without carrying 
68 






AUTO-SUGGESTION 

into all of life, — the life of the home, the 
life of business, the social life, — a sense 
of dignity and confidence and power 
such as he has never experienced before. 
Another hint as to the best time for 
lodging an auto-suggestion, so that it 
may become effective. It is during 
sleep, when the conscious mind is 
thoroughly quiescent, that the sub- 
conscious mind is most thoroughly 
awake. When you lie down to sleep 
at night, suppose you spend the last 
waking moments in picturing to your- 
self clearly and definitely the man or 
woman you want to be. You know 
what these last thoughts at night con- 
tain for most of us, — the worries, the 
anxieties, the perplexities, the problems 
of the day just gone, or else, the anxious 
anticipation of the day that is to come. 
Now just banish them all, and picture 
to yourself clearly the ideal man or 
woman you long to be. Think back 
69 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

over the past day and see where you 
failed to be patient with the children, 
or where you lost your temper in busi- 
ness. The many mistakes and little 
failures, of which no one of us is very 
proud, rise before us, as sad reminders 
of what we might have been. In these 
last waking moments picture clearly 
and intensely to yourself the opposites. 
If you have been impatient, create the 
mental image of yourself as calmly 
patient. As you fall asleep, say to 
yourself, " God helping me I will be 
patient, I can be patient in the pres- 
ence of the things that vex me so often, 
and tomorrow I will not lose my self- 
control." As you fall asleep, that last 
thought in your conscious mind is 
lodged in the sub-conscious, and your 
sub-conscious takes it up and does the 
work while you sleep; and you rise in 
the morning to find yourself calm and 
self -poised, as you have not been, per- 
70 



AUTO-SUGGESTION 

haps for days. I am not describing a 
beautiful theory merely. I am telling 
you what has been demonstrated to be 
true in countless lives. 

Are you really in earnest in this matter 
of making yourself, not in name only 
but in very truth, God's Child ? If 
you are, you can do it. I am simply 
bringing you the scientific method for 
the operation of these wonderful powers, 
with which God has endowed every 
soul. All that is required of us, is the 
patient, persistent and systematic ap- 
plication of the new knowledge that 
has come; and in your life and mine 
there will shine forth the beauty, the 
purity, the nobility, and the divineness 
of character revealed in the Master. 
Always and everywhere, by the power 
of auto-suggestion, we are building the 
spiritual manhood and womanhood 
within. What kind of material are we 
using ? 

71 



MIND AND MEDICINE 






MIND AND MEDICINE 




O the most casual observer, 
religious thought in America 
is just now very much ab- 
sorbed in the Gospel of Heal- 
ing. It would almost seem in reading 
the daily papers, not to speak of the 
more exhaustive literature on the sub- 
ject, as if Religion, Medicine and 
Psychology had joined hands in form- 
ing a New Religion, that is apparently 
sweeping this country from end to end. 
Many writers have referred to this 
striking movement as a " new faith ; " 
and yet, in the minds of its leaders it is 
not so much a new Faith, as it is a 
return to the original Faith of Jesus of 
3 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

Nazareth. As we read the Gospels, we 
cannot escape the conviction that Jesus 
regarded His work in the world as two- 
fold: It was (1) to preach the Gospel 
of the Kingdom, and (2) to heal the 
sick. It is certainly significant, when 
one stops to reflect upon the Gospel 
narrative, how much of His time and 
energy was spent in caring for the 
bodies of men. The Founder of Chris- 
tianity, in whom we see the revelation 
of a truly spiritual religion, spent con- 
siderably more time in looking after 
people's physical welfare than He did 
in preaching sermons. When He sends 
forth His Apostles, to continue the 
work which He had begun, He entrusts 
to them the same two-fold Commis- 
sion : they are to preach the Gospel 
of the Kingdom, and they are to heal 
the sick. And then, in His final 
words of instruction and encouragement 
He says, " And greater works than 
4 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

these, will ye do." The view of the 
Church in these later centuries has 
been, that the power which Jesus 
exercised in healing the sick was super- 
natural, a power with which He was 
endowed, as being peculiarly the Son 
of God, a power that has not been 
vouchsafed to others, a power that the 
Church does not possess to-day. The 
age of such " miracles," at least so says 
the Protestant world, ended with the 
Apostles. 

And yet if we admit that these won- 
ders were wrought, if we accept as 
historical these stories, telling of how 
Jesus went about healing the sick, or 
how they brought their sick to be healed 
by Him, certainly we are bound to 
admit that it must have been due to 
powers that were not contrary to law, 
but rather that proceeded from the 
knowledge of higher laws. Few intel- 
ligent persons to-day would care to 
5 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

claim that these healing works of Jesus 
were miracles in the old sense, of being 
exceptions to the great universal work- 
ing of God's laws. If He did these 
things which the Gospels record, it 
must have been because of a knowl- 
edge of some power perfectly natural 
which He understood, and of which we, 
at least until recently, have been igno- 
rant. The meaning of the word 
" miracle," as used in the Gospels, is 
" wonder," or "marvel," — something 
so extraordinary that it was not un- 
derstood by those who witnessed it. It 
by no means implies an act contrary to 
law. 

Many of the leaders of the present 
movement to unite Religion and Medi- 
cine are telling us that the Church 
has been shorn of its powers very 
largely, because it has neglected one- 
half of the work entrusted to it viz., 
the healing of the sick. One of the 
6 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

strongest arguments for Christian Sci- 
ence lies in the fact that it has en- 
deavoured, however faulty its philos- 
ophy, or whatever failures it may have 
made in individual cases, to not only 
preach the Gospel as interpreted by 
Mrs. Eddy, but to heal the sick as 
well. And in the face of undisputed 
cures accomplished, the churches have 
had nothing to say, except to make 
the old excuse that the age when the 
Church should care for the bodies of 
men has gone by, and all healing of 
the sick should now be left to skilled 
and trained physicians. 

Whatever may be our personal opin- 
ions as to the efficacy of Mental Heal- 
ing, or as to the function of the Church 
in healing the sick, certainly no person 
of intelligence to-day, within the Church 
or outside, can fail to be respectful in 
the presence of a movement which has 
already assumed such proportions, 
7 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

created so large a literature, and en- 
rolled so many illustrious names among 
its leaders. The time has arrived when 
ridicule and condemnation should give 
place to a frank and sympathetic 
endeavour to sift the truth from error, 
and discover the facts. 

With all due credit to the Christian 
Science movement for the way in 
which it has called the attention of the 
Church in general to this phase of 
work, nevertheless the modern scientific 
interest in the cure of the body through 
the aid of the mind antedates by several 
years the organization of Christian 
Science. Psychotherapy, or in plain 
English, Mind Healing, received its 
latter-day momentum about twenty- 
five years ago, when Charcot, Freud 
and Janet gave it new impulse by 
their researches and teachings. The 
present popular interest, outside of 
Christian Science circles, may be said to 
8 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

date from the institution of what is now 
known as the Emmanuel Movement, 
in connection with the old Episcopal 
Church of that name in Boston. Most 
people by this time are familiar with 
the story. Dr. Worcester of Emmanuel 
Church had formerly been rector of one 
of the leading Episcopal Churches in 
Philadelphia. In his congregation was 
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the Dean of the 
Medical Profession in America. In 
frequent conversations, Dr. Mitchell 
expressed the desire that the two Pro- 
fessions of Medicine and the Ministry 
might be brought into closer and more 
vital relationship. Dr. Mitchell ex- 
plained fully his views as to the way in 
which the ministry, rightly trained, 
could tremendously supplement the 
work of the physician, and vice versa, 
how the physician could supplement 
and aid the work of the minister. With 
this idea in mind, Dr. Worcester re- 
9 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

signed his Philadelphia church, and 
went abroad, where he spent several 
years in special studies in Psychology. 
Finally he returned to the Emmanuel 
Church in Boston, and with the assist- 
ance of Dr. McComb, also a specially 
trained man, instituted what is now 
known throughout the country as the 
Emmanuel Movement. Before this 
movement really assumed proportions, 
Emmanuel Church had been doing con- 
siderable work for the poor who were 
afflicted with tuberculosis. It em- 
ployed only the latest and most sci- 
entific methods for the treatment of 
this disease. The hospital was adapted 
to out-of-door treatment, and tents 
were rented to those who could afford 
to pay — and all under the auspices of 
the Church. Dr. Worcester has made 
the statement that this work with 
tubercular patients has resulted in 
eighty per cent, of cures. About three 
10 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

years ago, a clinic was established in 
connection with the church. Physi- 
cians of standing were added to the staff, 
giving their services gratuitously. Every 
person who applied for help was turned 
over to these scientifically trained men. 
Each individual case was diagnosed. 
If it was discovered that the trouble 
was organic, the case was turned over 
to the proper physician or surgeon. If 
the disease was diagnosed as func- 
tional, it was given to one of these 
specially trained men for mental treat- 
ment. 

There may be some who do not 
clearly understand the distinction be- 
tween organic and functional disorders. 
Stating it generally, organic diseases 
are those which have their origin in the 
physical organism ; functional disorders 
are those whose cause is mental or 
nervous. This distinction is constantly 
made by the Emmanuel Church workers, 
11 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

and has called out much criticism* 
especially from the Christian Scientists, 
who have said, " Why draw any line 
at all ? If the sub-conscious mind, by 
which you claim to be able to reach 
these various functional disorders, is 
in reality a part of the Infinite Mind, 
why can you not cure all diseases ? 
Why have any staff of physicians or 
surgeons ? Why not do all the Work, 
as we are striving to do in Christian 
Science ? " Nevertheless, this distinc- 
tion has been made, and I think very 
wisely, for as a matter of fact, while 
Christian Science claims to be able to 
cure all manner of diseases, organic 
as well as functional, still as we know, 
it does not always meet with success. 
One of the leading Christian Sci- 
ence healers in Chicago, an admirable 
woman in every way, and one who has 
done a tremendous amount of good in 
the world, and has been unquestionably 
12 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

instrumental in effecting many cures, 
died only a few weeks ago after a linger- 
ing illness from cancer. Another Chris- 
tian Science teacher who conducted 
many classes in my old home city, and 
was thoroughly beloved and respected 
by all who knew her, was suddenly 
stricken with blindness a few years 
ago. 

This is by no means to cast dis- 
paragement upon any genuine cure ac- 
complished through Christian Science. 
Medicine does not always cure. I refer 
to these cases simply to show that in 
this field of Suggestive Therapeutics 
there is need for caution and common- 
sense. We gain nothing by exaggera- 
tion. We do not need to claim every- 
thing, as did an osteopathic friend of 
mine, who, when asked what oste- 
opathy could do, replied, " We can cure 
everything now but snake bite, and in 
a very little while we expect to control 
13 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

even that." We are still on the thresh- 
old of the whole subject of the sub- 
conscious mind and its power over the 
physical body. We are feeling our 
way, by many different paths, and 
one day we shall arrive at the whole 
truth. The time may come when, as 
we become more conversant with these 
laws and their operation, we shall be 
able to control not only functional dis- 
orders but organic as well; but at the 
present stage of human development, 
with our present knowledge of the sub- 
conscious mind and its powers, the 
leaders in this field are saying, Let 
us confine for the present, at least, our 
application of these principles to func- 
tional disorders, springing not from 
broken down physical tissue, but rather 
from the mind, or the " nervous sys- 
tem." There is a tremendous field here; 
for, as every doctor knows, about two- 
thirds or one-half of all human mala- 
14 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

dies are functional in their character 
rather than organic. It must be re- 
membered, however, that the authori- 
ties in Suggestive Therapeutics frankly 
admit the tremendous influence of the 
mind even in organic diseases. 

Since the beginning of the Emmanuel 
Movement, various branches have 
sprung up in different parts of the 
country. In Chicago, Bishop Fallows, 
of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 
has established a clinic in connection 
with his church. In New York City, 
Dr. Loring W. Batten, rector of St. 
Mark's Church, has recently instituted 
a similar clinic. Dr. Birckhead, suc- 
cessor of Dr. Rainsford, has said that 
St. George's Church is about to in- 
stitute some such work, the exact 
nature of which is not yet announced; 
but he feels that the Church must in 
some way begin to show a vital interest 
in the work of healing the sick and 
15 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

caring for the bodies of men. Dr. 
Mac Donald, of Washington Avenue 
Baptist Church, Brooklyn, has been 
devoting considerable attention to this 
work. Dr. Lyman Powell, rector of 
St. John's Church, in Northampton, 
Massachusetts, has established a clinic. 
Besides these, there are a large number 
of other churches, more or less promi- 
nent throughout the country, that have 
either already established or are pre- 
paring to establish branches of the 
Emmanuel Movement. 

Men like Bishop Fallows and Dr. 
Worcester go so far as to say that it is 
only a question of a very little time 
before all the churches will add to 
their many functions the work of heal- 
ing the sick. This may be an open 
question in the minds of many. There 
can be no doubt in the case of the 
Emmanuel Church, Boston, where the 
leaders are specially trained for such 
16 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

work; but we can see how great injury 
might be done and much harm arise 
if all churches, regardless of whether 
their pastors have any fitness or have 
received special training in Psychology 
or the methods of Suggestive Thera- 
peutics, should rush pellmell into this 
movement. In my judgment this work 
must be done, if done rightly and effec- 
tively, by those who are specially fitted 
and trained. It may be that the time 
will come when in our theological semi- 
naries students will be required to take 
a course in Suggestive Therapeutics. 
Just now, however, it would seem to 
be the part of wisdom for us to respect- 
fully help in every possible way these 
churches that are especially equipped 
for this work and whose pastors are 
trained for such service, and meantime, 
to further study and carefully ob- 
serve this movement before we decide 
that all churches ought to add the 
17 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

work of healing to their other activi- 
ties. 

We sometimes speak as if the subject 
of Mental Healing was purely modern, 
and had only existed for the last 
generation or so; but I would remind 
you that as far back as history goes, we 
find that mental healing under various 
names and different forms has been 
practised and apparently with success. 
In the oldest civilization with which 
we are acquainted, that of Egypt, hun- 
dreds of years before the Christian era, 
it had a prominent place. The histo- 
rian Glidden remarks: " Their priests 
evidently appear to have perfectly com- 
prehended the method of exciting that 
internal sanative instinct in the human 
organism, which in general is a pro- 
found mystery, even to the individual 
who excites it ; and which was naturally 
enough, in those remote ages, repre- 
sented as the immediate gift of the 
18 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

gods. Nowhere else was this internal 
faculty so generally cultivated for the 
cure of the sick." The excavations at 
Cavvadias furnish much interesting 
material, showing that the miraculous 
cures of Epidaurus were effected at 
this ancient Greek shrine, 500 years 
before our era, by suggestion, and pre- 
cisely in the same manner as to-day at 
Lourdes. Livy tells us that the temples 
of the gods of Rome were rich in the 
number of offerings which the people 
used to make in return for the cures 
received from them; and Pliny tells of 
Etruscan spells used by Theophrastus 
for sciatica, by Cato for the cure of 
dislocated limbs, and by Varro for 
gout. Our own Druid ancestors, using 
similar methods, were consulted by the 
Emperor Aurelius. 

In these early days the power was 
attributed directly to the gods. It was 
supposed to be an arbitrary answer to 
19 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

prayer, or else a supernatural bestowal 
from Heaven of some divine gift. Yet 
psychologists, because of the various 
forms of healing which take place in 
modern times — whether at some sa- 
cred shrine, or by touching some holy 
relic, through the faith cure of Dowieism 
or the denial of disease by Christian 
Science, — believe that all are to be 
explained, by the power of the mind 
over the body through the law of 
suggestion. 

During the Middle Ages there were 
occasional priests who seemed to be 
vested with a " gift of healing." Such 
powers were attributed directly to the 
agencies of Heaven, merely because 
such marvels were not understood. 
Roman Catholic history as well as 
Protestant, has a great deal to say 
about the miraculous healing power of 
certain priests or other saintly indi- 
viduals. We know how saintship was 
20 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

often won, among the Catholics of the 
Middle Ages, because of the wonderful 
"miracles" or, as we understand to-day, 
the psychological cures accomplished. 

But coming down to modern times, 
I want to bring you a few brief extracts 
from leading physicians to-day, who 
stand in the fore-front of their profes- 
sion and are recognized authorities in 
England and America. 

Sir Andrew Clark says: " It is im- 
possible for us to deal knowingly and 
wisely with various disorders of the 
body without distinctly recognizing the 
agency of states and conditions of 
mind, often in producing and always in 
modifying them." 

Dr. Maudsley says : " Perhaps we 
do not as physicians consider suffi- 
ciently the influence of mental states in 
the production of disease, their im- 
portance as symptoms, or take all the 
advantages which we might get from 
21 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

them in our effort to cure disease. 
Quackery seems to have got hold of a 
truth which legitimate medicine fails 
to appreciate." 

Dr. Robertson says: "While the 
influence of the mind over the body 
is universally recognized, its employ- 
ment as a therapeutic agent is purposely 
used by but a few in the regular ranks 
of the profession." 

Sir S. Wilks remarks: " The doctor 
soon finds that in treating his patient 
the practice of medicine is not only one 
of physic, but of psychology; and that 
the effect of his drugs depends as much 
upon the constitution of the patient's 
mind as that of his body." 

Dr. Shoemaker of Philadelphia says: 
" Psychotherapism plays a most im- 
portant part in the ordinary every-day 
practice of medicine. The influence of 
the mind upon the bodily functions is 
so great that every experienced, intelli- 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

gent physician is glad to enlist so potent 
an auxiliary." 

We read in "The Lancet:" 
' Though the therapeutic effect of 
faith and hope is not detailed in our 
text-books, they are enough to turn the 
scale in favour of recovery; and yet 
they are but two of the many mental 
medicines which a judicious physician 
may use in the management of disease." 

Dr. Affleck says: " The power of 
suggestion as a factor in therapeutics 
has gained wide recognition in recent 
times." 

" A day will come," says De Fleury, 
" when there shall arise an upright 
and intelligent physician, strong enough 
to defy ridicule, and authorized by a 
noble life and the merit of his labours 
to lay claim to the superior dignity of 
a moralist. If he knows the human 
heart well he can draw the sick of soul 
to him." 

23 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

Dr. A. Morrison, President of the 
iEsculapian Society, says: " We often 
do less than half of our duty in not 
exploring the mental life of the patient. 
A good deal has been written on pro- 
longed vascular tension due to physical 
causes. Is there no such state as pro- 
longed mental tension due to moral 
causes ? ... In such cases, if the phy- 
sician is to be of any service to his 
patient, it must be by the agency of 
mind on mind; and this takes us out 
of the vestibule littered with micro- 
scopes, crucibles, and retorts into that 
inner chamber — the holy of holies, in 
the life of a physician and his patients — 
where heart and mind are laid bare to 
the sympathetic gaze of a fellow-man, 
whose discretion may be relied upon, 
and who may, from his training in the 
knowledge of the human soul as well 
as the human body, be able to cure his 
brother of a disturbing factor in his life 
24 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

beyond the reach of the most advanced 
therapeutics of a purely physical kind." 

One of the last words of Henry 
Gawen Sutton, teacher of pathology 
at the London Hospital, was: " Don't 
underrate the influence of your own 
personality. Learn to give confidence 
to your patients." 

Dr. A. T. Schofieldsays: " To con- 
strain a feeble mind to be governed by 
a good one is not a superhuman 
labour for one who goes about it 
adroitly. The moment the eye of the 
patient meets the eye of the physician, 
psychological action, influencing the 
course of the disease, at once takes 
place through the patient's unconscious 
mind." 

To these names should be added the 
following, all of whom are enlisted in 
the cause of Suggestive Therapeutics: 
Forel, Bernheim, Dubois, Liebcault, 
Tuckey and Vogt of Europe; Prof. 
25 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

Jastrow of Wisconsin University, Jack- 
son, Royce, and Southard of Harvard, 
Woodworth and Peterson of Columbia, 
Coriat of Boston City Hospital; and of 
American physicians, Morton Prince, 
Boris Sidis, Jas. J. Putnam, Richard 
C. Cabot, Lewelys F. Barker and many 
others. 

I make these quotations for the sake 
of proving that the whole method of the 
modern physician is changed, whether 
he has admitted it publicly or not. I 
imagine there is no intelligent physician 
in active practice to-day, who is not 
using psychotherapy every day of his 
life. It may be through the conscious 
power of his own personality, it may be 
by a clear understanding of the law of 
Suggestion, it may be by. recourse to 
some harmless deception, such as the 
bread pill — but every intelligent doc- 
tor is recognizing the truth of what 
these men of prominence here express; 
26 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

and while many of them are not saying 
anything about it to their patients or 
the world outside, they are coming 
more and more to realize the large part 
which mind plays in disease. 

A few months ago I met at the 
steamer a physician and surgeon who 
stands in the front rank of his profes- 
sion in the Middle West ; a man whose 
ear is always close to the ground, and 
who is unusually alert and eager to obtain 
the very latest discoveries in his pro- 
fession. He was just returning from a 
year's trip around the world. He had 
spent much time in the hospitals of 
Japan, China, India, also at Vienna, 
Berlin and London. I asked him what 
he had brought back to enrich his 
professional life. His reply was very 
significant: " There is a world-wide 
movement on in the medical profession, 
tending more and more toward the 
prevention of disease . ' ' Then he added : 
27 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

" In your lifetime, and perhaps in mine, 
we will see the use of drugs reduced to 
the minimum." Another physician 
said to me recently: " The chief 
trouble is that the whole business of 
drugs has been so tremendously com- 
mercialized. The great drug manu- 
facturing companies are continually 
bringing out some new combination of 
drugs and forcing them on the physician 
and the helpless public, until we are 
simply swamped with innumerable 
* remedies.' : There are a hundred 
different remedies for every known 
disease, each one, naturally, claiming to 
be the best. Dr. Osier, formerly of 
Johns Hopkins University, wrote back 
to this country from Europe, that 
" within a few years we shall see nine- 
tenths of all the drugs with which the 
American people now dope themselves 
dumped into the bottom of the sea." 
One of the greatest crimes, committed 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

by the people against themselves, is their 
startling use of patent medicines. If 
the advertiser is only an artist in his 
line, most of us are susceptible enough 
to his Suggestion. But as every doctor 
knows, the patent medicines which are 
annually sold in this country, literally 
by the hundreds of carloads, have done 
and are doing an inestimable amount of 
harm to the physical life of the people. 
And the reaction against their use has 
already begun. 

Let me say a word about the physi- 
cian in his relation to this movement of 
mental healing. From my own experi- 
ence I believe there is no nobler class 
of men on the face of the earth than 
physicians and surgeons. They are for 
the most part heroic, self-sacrificing, 
untiring men, whose services to suffer- 
ing humanity have never yet been 
worthily appreciated. I have no sym- 
pathy whatever with the general tirade 
29 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

which is heard in certain quarters 
against the medical profession. I want 
to remind you of one or two things 
which we should always remember, 
before we criticize the doctors unduly. 
Take one single illustration. Have you 
stopped to realize what the discovery of 
chloroform has meant to the world ? 
Can any one estimate the amount of 
human suffering and pain that has been 
relieved, and from which poor humanity 
has been saved, simply because of the 
discovery of chloroform ? 

Do you realize what preventative 
measures have been brought about by 
the doctor ? There was a time a few 
years ago when the Panama Canal 
region was known as the Death Zone, 
but to-day the death rate is lower there 
than in the City of New York. Who 
changed the conditions ? The doctor, 
the trained scientific man who went 
down there and instituted sanitary laws 
30 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

and regulations. Many will remember 
when it was not an uncommon thing 
for cholera or smallpox to sweep over 
certain portions of our large cities, and 
we are all familiar with the frightful 
ravages wrought by the yellow fever in 
our Southern cities. Why do we no 
longer fear these plagues ? It is due 
to the scientific and self-sacrificing work 
of the doctor. Why is the death rate 
to-day so extremely low in New York 
City, even with its slum quarters — only 
seventeen or eighteen, and even drop- 
ping one month this last summer to as 
low as thirteen per thousand ? It is 
chiefly due to the doctor, the trained 
scientific man, working with the Board 
of Health. It is these heroic and 
courageous men who are locating the 
dark rooms, and condemning the tene- 
ment houses where conditions are such 
as to foster disease in all its various 
forms, who are insisting that the streets 
31 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

be kept clean and who are placing all 
possible restrictions about contagious 
diseases. We have by no means done 
all we might in this regard, but we must 
never forget that whatever has been 
accomplished in the direction of a 
more healthful city has been due 
chiefly to the physician. We need to 
remember when we are tempted to 
criticize the doctor, that the greatest 
part of his work is not in curing 
disease, but in preventing it, and thus 
making impossible these awful scourges 
which have ravaged nations or cities 
from the beginning of time. 

Think of the accomplishments in 
the field of surgery. Even Mrs. Eddy 
admits that in the case of a fractured 
bone or a dislocated limb the surgeon 
must be called in. I think nobody 
would be foolish enough to claim that 
when a man breaks his leg he can sit 
down and by concentrating his thoughts 
m 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

upon it, mend the fracture. Surgery 
is an exact science, as medicine is not 
and perhaps never can be. Who can 
estimate the amount of good accom- 
plished by modern surgery, the suffer- 
ing that has been relieved, the indi- 
viduals who have been saved to their 
homes and families and to society ? 
We should bow our heads in reverence 
in the presence, of the skilled and con- 
scientious physician or surgeon. But 
what is extremely significant is this, 
that the intelligent physician to-day 
everywhere, is changing his method, 
is depending less on drugs and more on 
the remedial powers of the mind. Ian 
MacClaren, in his story " A Doctor of 
the Old School," tells of Dr. MacClure, 
who had been called to a farm, where 
a boy had been badly crushed in a 
machine. A neighbour in telling the 
experience afterwards says: " It was 
michty tae see him come intae the 
33 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

yaird that day; the verra look o' him 
wes victory." And our modern doctor 
is learning how to carry victory in his 
face, in the tone of his voice, in his 
every action, as he goes into the sick 
room. He has become more and more 
skillful in the art of Suggestion. As I 
have stood by his side many a time, I 
have marveled at the skill, with which 
he used all the knowledge of modern 
psychology, in seeking to effect the cure. 
The greatest present need is that the 
true mental healer should always have 
the profoundest respect for the true 
and conscientious physician; and also, 
that the true physician should have a 
genuine respect for the trained, con- 
scientious and honest mental healer. 

If this present movement continues 
to grow in extent and power, it must 
mean that the Church, Medicine and 
Psychology will come into even closer 
fellowship and work together in a more 
34 



MIND AND MEDICINE 

vital sympathy. Does not such a 
vision presage a great and glorious 
future? We have come to see in all 
these wonderful movements of thought, 
that man is not a being to be separated 
into different compartments, so that we 
can turn his body over to some doctor, 
his soul over to some minister, and his 
mind over to some educator. Man is a 
unit, — body, soul and mind, — and if 
we are going to train men, who shall be 
in every sense symmetrical characters, 
our educators and our ministers and 
our doctors must work in harmony, 
with man and for man. This is the goal 
to which all our thought to-day is 
tending. When that day dawns we 
shall at last attain to a truly scientific 
religion, and a truly sacred science. 



35 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 




PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

MONG all peoples and in 
every age, nothing has been 
so persistently sought as bodily 
health. The Elixir of Life 
has been the dream not only of the early 
alchemists but even of some modern 
chemists and yet we seem to be no 
nearer the consummation of that age- 
old desire than were the Ancients. On 
the contrary, we find that physical 
disorders are steadily growing more 
subtile and complex. Physicians are 
increasing in number in a much larger 
proportion than the population, while 
diseases and remedies of every kind 
multiply constantly. Insanity, insom- 
39 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

nia and all forms of nervous disorders 
are increasingly prevalent. 

Professor Paul DuBoise, of Berne 
University, has recently written a book 
on " The Psychic Treatment of Nerv- 
ous Disorders," consisting of thirty- 
five chapters devoted to more than that 
number of different manifestations of 
nervous disease. Specialists grow more 
numerous, and each finds what he is 
looking for. Some years ago a friend 
of mine was taken sick, and after seek- 
ing in vain for relief through his family 
physician, consulted one of the leading 
specialists in the city where he lived. 
He told him the trouble was with his 
heart; that was his specialty. A little 
later he consulted another specialist. 
This man told him he had diabetes; 
that was his specialty. Another diag- 
nosed his case as due to uric acid in the 
blood; that was his specialty. Still 
another told him that the cause of his 
40 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

difficulty lay in his digestive organs; 
that was his specialty. Finally the man 
died of a malady which none of these 
specialists had discovered. 

We need not question the honesty or 
intelligence of any of these men. It 
only shows the natural tendency, unless 
the case is very clear and simple as few 
cases are, for each specialist to discover 
symptoms of his own special disease, 
and treat the case accordingly. Yet in 
spite of these discouraging facts, the 
time is fast approaching when it will be 
much easier for people to possess health 
and strength than to be without 
them, for both these blessings come 
through conformity to Law both outer 
and inner. For centuries men have 
sought health in the outer realm of 
sanitation, hygiene and drugs. " These 
ought ye to have done " — with the 
exception of a greatly superfluous 
amount of drugs — " but not to have 
41 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

left the others undone." It is no 
disparagement of sanitary or hygienic 
laws when I affirm that at last man is 
beginning to realize that the laws which 
pertain to the inner life are far more 
important even than these external laws. 
In a previous essay I sought to de- 
scribe the background of the Movement 
for Health which is just now attracting 
so much interest, and pointed out the 
distinguished men who have already 
given it their support, thus showing 
that it is not a Movement to be treated 
with anything less than respect. The 
average man certainly has a right to 
know the facts; our only desire is for 
the truth. Even if there is but a 
modicum of virtue in mental thera- 
peutics making for the alleviation of 
human suffering, surely the world needs 
sadly its reinforcement; and if it con- 
tains no truth, if it proceeds from a 
baseless idealism, then by all means let 
42 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

us admit frankly the hollowness of its 
claims. 

Have we to-day in mental thera- 
peutics a great principle, capable of 
wide application, that lies so near 
every one of us that we have hitherto 
looked through it or beyond it? Are 
there certain orderly forces in the mind, 
far more potent for good in the life 
of humanity than are these great 
forces recently harnessed in the realm 
of electricity ? These are some of the 
questions that naturally arise in the 
mind of every earnest seeker after truth. 

At the beginning of our discussion 
it is necessary that we should do some 
accurate defining. Mental therapeu- 
tics is not to be confused with Christian 
Science, or Faith Cure, nor is it to be 
regarded simply as a new competitor 
of the other healing agencies already 
in the field. Although we often use 
the words " Christian Science " in a 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

rather loose and general sense, neverthe- 
less, in the strict sense, Christian Sci- 
ence should be identified with a dis- 
tinct school which takes for its exclusive 
text-book a work entitled " Science and 
Health," by Mrs. Mary B. G. Eddy, 
and the Bible as interpreted through it. 
This is said in an impartial spirit, as 
a matter of definition and simple justice 
to all concerned. 

The process of Mrs. Eddy begins 
with the denial of everything evil. It 
depends for its basis upon the assump- 
tion of the unreality of the body and of 
so-called material things. Matter is 
unreal; pain is a fiction; disease is 
imaginary. For myself I do not believe 
we gain anything by denying facts which 
are clearly patent to all. It is true we 
are souls, but souls living on the physi- 
cal plane, and the body is a reality on 
its own plane and in the degree in which 
the real unity of life is expressed 
44 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

through it. Hence, to deny the reality 
of the physical body, of pain and 
disease, is only a juggling with words. 
If we say, in good faith, there is no sin, 
sickness or disease, we have simply 
succeeded in hypnotizing ourselves into 
a belief that is an error. All these con- 
ditions do exist. They are not " real " 
in the sense of being permanent; they 
are but transitory conditions through 
which the soul passes, but they cannot 
be overcome through mere denial. The 
system of denial, which really lies at 
the basis of Christian Science, results, 
in fact, in emphasizing the reality of 
the very conditions from which we 
seek deliverance. The way to escape 
from darkness is not to deny that dark- 
ness exists. The only way to dispel 
darkness is to let in the light. Error 
of any kind is to be overcome not by 
the denial that error exists, but by 
affirming the existence and power of the 
45 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

truth. There is another form of denial 
which is both true and rational. This 
is the affirmation of the superiority of 
the mind over the body, involving the 
denial that body can, of and for itself, 
do anything or feel anything. This is 
no mere denial or negation; it rather 
arises from the positive assertion of 
the higher law. There is a great 
difference between an imaginary disease 
and a disease of the imagination. The 
tendency in the past has been to regard 
many mental and nervous disorders 
as purely imaginary, and so unworthy 
of serious attention. Suggestive Thera- 
peutics recognizes that such so-called 
" imaginary disorders " are really dis- 
eases of the mind, causing the individ- 
ual oftentimes more pain and suffering 
by far, than would be produced by 
organic diseases. 

Faith Cure, in the proper sense, 
presumes upon special divine inter- 
46 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

position in answer to prayer. It im- 
plies a suspension and violation of the 
orderly laws of the universe. Owing 
to the working of mental forces, many 
remarkable cures do take place under 
the administration of both Christian 
Science and Faith Cure, only the 
modus operandi is misunderstood. 

Nor are we to think of Mental 
Healing as merely another competitor 
in the field of the " pathies," seeking 
to relieve human suffering. This 
broader science of Mental Healing 
recognizes no external authority as 
located in a single person or text-book. 
" It is a development from within, 
rather than a system from without. It 
is a life rather than a doctrine. It is a 
new consciousness, rather than a new 
philosophy. It is a spiritual optimism, 
rather than a material or pessimistic 
realism. Its business is to bring inner 
ideals into outward actualized expres- 
47 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

sion. It lias to do with the intuition 
as well as with the intellect. It recog- 
nizes that the inner and real nature of 
man is in most intimate relation with 
the Universal Mind of God." 

Its underlying principle consists in 
a recognition of mental causation for 
all outward phenomena. But the idea 
of mental causation for physical con- 
ditions is in substantial harmony with 
the highest and best thought of the seers 
and philosophers, from Plato down to 
the present time. " If primary causes 
for physical ills are resident in the 
clay of the body, there is no warrant 
whatever for healing through mind. If, 
however, causative forces are located 
in the mental realm, there is no logical 
basis, per se, for anything else." 

We are all in bondage to the seen, and 

constantly speak of mere occasions as 

causes. In popular language, we say 

that the draught caused the cold, the 

48 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

contagion caused the fever, or the 
unfriendly microbe the disease. As a 
matter of fact, these are occasions 
but not causes. The cause in every 
case, is in the subjective conditions 
which we usually call the susceptibility 
of the individual. Occasions are always 
without; causes within. Ten people 
sit in the same draught, are exposed to 
the same contagion, or swallow the 
same microbes. Some will suffer, and 
perhaps die, while the others go scot 
free. The doctor and nurse can breathe 
the atmosphere of contagious disease 
continually, but they rarely succumb 
themselves. 

The people during an epidemic who 
are most fearful, are usually, on the 
testimony of physicians, the first ones 
to succumb to the disease. All this 
shows that occasions are only oppor- 
tunities. Owing to general low develop- 
ment, such opportunities must often 
49 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

be avoided, but even then they never 
become causes. The true method is 
to so fortify our inner mental and phys- 
ical life that we shall no longer be sus- 
ceptible to external influences, so that 
the contagion we all breathe and the 
microbes we all swallow shall have no 
power over us. The time may come — 
it has not arrived yet — when the 
scientist will be able to locate the mental 
cause for every known disease; will 
be able to state just why at such a time 
a particular person took cold or came 
down with fever. Remember, we are 
but standing on the threshold of the 
great realm of mental dynamics; but 
dimly conscious as yet that mental 
and moral conditions are the most 
potent forces that make for health and 
happiness. 

It is not necessary in this connection 
to discuss the different diseases which 
experience has demonstrated can be 
50 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

successfully treated by the mind. My 
purpose is to present as clearly as 
possible the general principles which, 
if followed out systematically and per- 
sistently, must result in physical health, 
strength and happiness. 

If we are to understand and effect- 
ively apply in our lives the laws of 
mental healing, we must realize at the 
outset the unity of our life. We speak 
of the individual as consisting of soul, 
mind and body. We know that mind 
and body are not two separate entities. 
Mind expresses itself through the body 
and directly influences the body, and 
in turn, the body influences the mind. 
Mind and body are constantly acting 
and reacting on one another. Then 
we speak of the soul as if that were 
another distinct entity, something sepa- 
rate from mind and body. But what 
we mean by soul or spirit is simply 
the spiritual ego, the individual who 
51 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

stands back of mind and body, and uses 
both as instruments of expression. Soul, 
the term used to describe the highest 
expression of individual entity, is not 
different from or independent of the 
Universal Soul of all things. Soul, 
mind and body are, then, bound to- 
gether in the closest kind of unity. 
These thoughts once fairly grasped, it 
becomes comparatively easy to under- 
stand the absolute oneness of Life, 
and yet, the One Life manifesting 
itself in many ways and through many 
degrees. We must not pick these 
different expressions of life apart and 
think of them as though they were 
entirely distinct. We must realize that 
they are, in the last analysis, all one, 
that the life which flows through this 
grand Universe is all one — One Life, 
One Intelligence. Still further, man 
must recognize his oneness with all 
humanity; that the life which flows in 
52 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

his veins is the same life that flows in 
the veins of every human being. He 
must be lifted out of his sense of little- 
ness, his sense of isolation, his sense of 
being merely a personal entity, into the 
sense of his oneness with the Whole, 
of his life as part and parcel of all life, 
inextricably bound up with the life of 
humanity. This consciousness of life's 
unity does not come to one suddenly. 
It is developed as one dwells upon the 
thought of life, as one seeks to realize 
the deeper meaning of life, as one 
endeavours to get back to causes and 
tries to interpret relationships. In 
other words, it is as a man thinks. The 
trouble with most of us is that we spend 
very little time in actual thinking; but 
when one begins to seriously think 
upon such subjects, he finds, in com- 
pany with the great philosophers of 
all times, that there is no other way to 
interpret human life except in terms of 
53 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

its oneness with the Infinite Life of the 
Universe. 

The next essential is to cultivate 
within our mental life the elements of 
faith, hope and love. Faith is the 
opposite of distrust or suspicion. Hope 
is the opposite of discouragement and 
melancholy. Love is the opposite of 
selfishness. There is a profound phil- 
osophy underlying the statement of the 
Apostle Paul, " Now abideth these 
three, faith, hope and love." To 
cultivate faith and hope and love means 
to foster harmonious thinking, for the 
opposite of these things constitutes the 
very essence of discordant thought. 
But faith in what ? Faith in your own 
power to live the life of freedom and 
self-control, the life full of composure 
and cheerfulness, the life that is de- 
livered from all fear of sickness and 
disease. Is the phrase your own power 
a correct one? That depends upon 
54 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

how it is understood. The power acts 
through you. In that sense, it is your 
own, because it is expressed through 
you. In the narrower sense, it is not 
your own. " Of myself I can do noth- 
ing," said the Master. " The Father 
working in me, He doeth the works." 
What we call faith in our own powers is 
really just the recognition of the power 
that God has given us to use. Faith, 
as the New Testament uses the word, 
is not to be confused with belief in 
certain dogmas of religion; it is a 
dynamic faith in one's own power to 
realize health, happiness and peace 
within. 

The element of Hope is the only true 
solvent of despair, discouragement, 
melancholy, fear and dread. Every 
doctor knows that these mental 
moods constitute the deadliest foes to 
physical health and strength. Hope 
means confidence, cheerfulness and 
55 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

brightness. To cultivate Hope means 
to look on trie bright side, not only of 
things but of people, and to believe in 
the bright side of things and of people. 
It is an easy thing to unconsciously 
form the habit of always seeing the 
darker side, of always anticipating what 
may happen in the future to cloud the 
sky. If we are going to live in the 
atmosphere of Hope, — one of the 
strongest allies of strength and health, 
— we must cultivate the opposite of 
all these tendencies of our nature. If 
we desire, we can make brightness, 
cheerfulness, composure, hope for the 
future, faith in ourselves and con- 
fidence in our fellows, the great domi- 
nant forces of our daily lives. 

Then cultivate most earnestly the 
spirit of Love. The root of all discord 
in thinking, that plays such havoc with 
our bodies as well as our souls, is selfish- 
ness, in the form of greed, avarice, 
56 






PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

pride, jealousy, envy, or any other of 
these malign influences. Foster within 
yourself the opposite of selfishness. 
When Paul concludes with the words, 
" The greatest of these is Love," and 
when Jesus sums up all the Law and 
the Prophets in the one great com- 
mandment — love to God and love to 
man — they understood how the life 
lived in the atmosphere of love, the life 
whose attitude was habitually one of 
loving thoughts and loving desires, 
must inevitably be the life possessed of 
fulness of strength and health, both 
of body and soul. We all believe in 
love, we all approve the sermon that 
treats of love, and we are all quick to 
say that what we need in our lives is 
more of the spirit of love. But, ask 
yourself the question, " How earnestly, 
how persistently, how systematically in 
my every-day life, am I seeking to hold 
and cultivate in my mind only loving 
57 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

thoughts ? " How often do you take 
mental inventory and say, " This is an 
envious thought, and that is a jealous 
thought, and that is a melancholy 
thought; and I am allowing such 
thoughts to lodge in my mind, and so 
control my life ? " Read the wonderful 
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
and then compare the ideal it presents 
with your daily life. ' 6 Love suffereth 
long and is kind; love envieth not; 
love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 
up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth 
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the 
truth; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endure th all 
things. Love never faileth." If we 
should determine to live in the at- 
mosphere of that single chapter of 
the Bible for six months, we should 
marvel at the transformation in our- 
58 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

selves and in those about us. Culti- 
vate the spirit of faith and hope 
and love in this systematic way, just 
as earnestly as you would cultivate 
your muscles by exercise, or the powers 
of your mind by study — and see the 
result. 

Another fundamental need is to 
change our negative thoughts to positive. 
I wonder if any one realizes how much 
of his thinking is on the plane of the 
negative. An old proverb says that a 
man is either his own physician at 
forty or else he is a fool. But however 
much we know at forty, we are all of us 
fools, in this respect at least, that in our 
conversation we pay altogether too much 
attention to sickness and physical condi- 
tions. Dr. Heber Newton tells of once 
spending a month in a sanitarium. The 
sanitary regulations and the hygiene 
were correct; but he says the mental 
atmosphere was harmful in the extreme. 
59 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

Attending a concert given one evening 
for the patients, there came a sudden 
lull in the music, and in the comparative 
silence the only words that fell upon his 
ears were these, " Rheumatism, in- 
fluenza, pneumonia, nervous prostra- 
tion, etc." What kind of a place was 
that in which to find health? The 
whole atmosphere was surcharged with 
the thoughts of people who dwelt con- 
stantly on their physical disorders and 
sufferings. When we come together 
how much of the time is spent in con- 
versing about our own physical con- 
ditions or else those of our friends. 
Our talking is by no means an idle or 
meaningless thing. Every time we 
dwell upon such things in conversation 
we are giving potent suggestions of ill- 
health to ourselves and others. What 
we talk about habitually, is simply an 
indication of what we think habitually, 
and what we think habitually is what 
60 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

we, sooner or later, become in our- 
selves. Cease thinking thoughts of 
sickness, and you will soon stop talking 
along lines which only create the 
atmosphere that makes for ill-health 
and disease. Did you ever wonder why 
the children of the rich, petted and 
coddled from the cradle, with a nurse 
to dog their every footstep, who are 
bundled up with the greatest care every 
time they step outside the door, and 
are constantly warned against eating 
this or drinking that — why such chil- 
dren, protected and safeguarded by 
all these influences, turn out so often 
weak, puny and sickly? The children 
of the street, on the other hand, about 
whom nobody seems to care, who have 
never had the guardianship of a nurse, 
whose parents know nothing and care 
less about the laws of diet, often grow 
up to be strong, robust and hearty. 
One of the causes unquestionably lies in 
61 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

the fact that in the homes of the rich, 
an atmosphere is created by the over- 
fond parent or the too- careful nurse, 
in which the child is made to fear 
and dread countless ills, of which the 
street gamin never dreams ;^and what is 
feared is invited. I have a friend who 
believes so strongly in the power of 
words, even casually spoken, that when 
she meets a friend she never says, " I 
hope you are well to-day." She has 
changed her greeting, and always says, 
" I hope you are good to-day; " and if 
we are good in the broad sense of the 
word, we will be well. What we need in 
all the range of our conversation at home 
and elsewhere, is to transfer our think- 
ing from the negative to the positive 
plane. Think only healthful thoughts 
and speak only healthful words. 
Let the thoughts that are uppermost in 
your mind, whether you are alone or 
with others, be always those thoughts 
62 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

that make for health and strength and 
power. If we could cultivate the habit 
of living our lives on the plane of the 
positive, not in the realm of what we 
fear or dread, or doubt, or distrust, 
our " susceptibility " to sickness of all 
kinds would largely disappear. 

Once again, we need to cultivate 
the imaging faculty. We must take 
pains to outline in our minds definitely, 
clearly and intensely what we mean by 
Health. Picture in your mind the 
perfect man — image and likeness of his 
Creator, without spot or blemish. It 
is not enough to repeat formulas, par- 
rot fashion. If you discover the root 
trouble to be hatred, anger or jealousy, 
then picture to yourself the idea of 
love as the great reality; if selfishness 
is the cause, replace it by the thought 
that we are all members of one body, 
etc. In this connection, there is tre- 
mendous need of the power of Concert- 
63 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

tration. The great weakness in most 
of our lives is traceable to the fact that 
we have so little command over our 
mental forces; our minds fly from one 
thing to another. We no sooner begin 
to think about one subject than im- 
mediately our attention is diverted, 
and we find ourselves thinking about 
something else. What makes the suc- 
cessful scientist ? His power of con- 
centration in one field of investigation. 
What makes the great inventor like 
Edison ? His power to concentrate all 
his energies in one direction. What 
constitutes the true student ? His 
ability to take his book in hand and sit 
down for hours together and concen- 
trate his attention on the problems in 
which he is interested. Here is where 
most of us fail. Our weakness men- 
tally and therefore physically, nine 
times out of ten, is due to the fact that 
we do not command our mental forces, 
64 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

that we do not know how to concen- 
trate our mental powers; that we no 
sooner touch one subject than we are 
drawn away to something else. Yet I 
want to affirm that if any man or woman 
is really in earnest in this matter, they 
can cultivate their powers of mental 
concentration just as truly as any other 
power. The first thing is to recognize 
its real need in your life. Then realizing 
that you cannot be any better, mentally 
or physically, until you cultivate these 
powers, set yourself to the task. Let 
it be by the systematic and persistent 
practice of holding your mind steadily 
to the subject in hand. With a book 
before you, or in the quiet hour as you 
sit alone, take some uplifting thought 
into your mind and resolve to shut out 
every other thought for the time being. 
Suppose you take the thought, " I am 
God's child." Approach it from one 
direction then from another. " Who 
65 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

is God ? " and " What does it mean to 
be God's child ? " or, " If I am God's 
child, what is my relation to Him ? " 
" If I am God's child, what part of 
God is it that I possess, that I can 
appropriate and use to my own up- 
building ? " Think all around the 
thought suggested, and then think 
back again. Look at its truths from 
this standpoint and from that, but 
concentrate your mind on the one 
central thought, to the exclusion of 
everything else. Exercise your mind 
in this way daily, and note the results. 
You will come forth from such an 
experience with a sense of power that 
you have never felt before, with your 
mind renewed, your strength quickened 
and your confidence in God and your- 
self wonderfully increased. 

Then there is needed the cultivation 
of peace and restfulness. A few years 
ago a well-known German physician 
66 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

visited this country. On his return he 
wrote that he had discovered in the 
increasingly prevalent nervous break- 
down of the American people a new 
disease, which he called " Americani- 
tis." Every doctor knows that nervous 
breakdown, in the last analysis, is due 
to mental conditions. It is the nervous 
hurry, the waste of nervous energy 
due to lack of self-control, that results 
in so many different forms of nervous 
disorders. All this could be checked 
and controlled and cured, if we would 
simply take pains to cultivate in our- 
selves peace, restfulness and quiet- 
ness. 

I know a woman who found herself 
getting into a very nervous condition, 
and in consequence giving way to an 
impatient spirit in her speech, until 
the habit seemed fixed. She finally 
realized that the fault was altogether 
with herself, that it lay in her own lack 
67 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

of mental poise, and she said, " I am 
going to conquer this thing." She 
pictured clearly to herself the ideal of 
self-control and patience, and finally 
resolved not to utter one impatient 
word for a week. At the end of that 
time the habit was broken. Practise 
self-control and self-poise as you would 
practise your music at the piano or 
your problems in the school room or 
your exercises in the gymnasium. Be 
dead in earnest in winning the victory 
over yourself by developing your powers 
to the full. It will take time to reach 
perfection, but that is what we are 
here for, and it can be done. 

One last essential is the cultivation 
of silence. If men and women would 
simply stop in the midst of their busy 
life for a few moments every day, and 
be still, and in the silence think upon 
the great realities of life, they would be 
amazed at the result. I have a friend, 
68 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

who is a manager of a street railway 
system in one of the Western cities, 
who told me a few years ago that, in the 
multiplicity of his duties, he found he 
was losing all control of himself and 
was unable to do his required work. 
He made it a rule every day after lunch, 
to go upstairs to a room by himself, in 
the building where he worked, and 
spend a half hour alone. I asked him 
if he prayed. He said, " No, I do not 
believe you would call it prayer. I 
close my eyes and just stop and think 
carefully and slowly and clearly about 
the things which are really worth while 
in life; and I have found I cannot do 
without it now." If we could but 
realize the necessity of taking time to 
go away into the Silence, and just let 
our feverish lives sink down to some of 
these deep, eternal principles of life 
and religion, there is nothing in the 
world that would send us back to our 
69 



/ 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

work with greater physical vitality, 
greater buoyancy and greater strength. 
Do not misconstrue iny meaning. 
Do not imagine me as saying that when 
you are sick or weak all you have to 
do is to think you are well, and you 
are well. This is a caricature on mental 
healing. I have not said that. What 
I have said is that when you are sick, 
your mental condition and your 
thoughts are far more important than 
the physical effects from which you 
suffer. Exactly as you take care of 
the nourishment of the body, just as 
you see to it that three times a day you 
eat the proper food in the proper 
quantities, so the mind, which lies back 
of all physical conditions, must receive 
its proper nourishment in the form of 
health-producing thoughts, if you are 
to eradicate the primary cause of your 
disorder; and it is in your power to 
give the right food to your mind. 
70 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

Nourish your mind with these thoughts 
of faith, hope and love, these thoughts 
of confidence and composure, cheer- 
fulness and hope, and you will begin to 
see changes taking place in your ab- 
normal or disordered physical con- 
dition. 

There are four ways in which mental 
therapeutics can be applied in one's 
own personal life. First of all, by the 
direct power of the sub-conscious mind 
inherent in itself. This is what the 
doctor would call the vis medicatrix 
natures. It is what the doctor means 
when he says in certain cases, " We 
have done all we can. Now we must 
let nature do the rest." All intelligent 
physicians know that this " power of 
nature " is the power of the sub- 
conscious mind. In the case where the 
doctor says, " We can do no more, 
there is no hope," and yet the patient 
slowly comes back to life, the recovery 
71 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

is due to the remedial powers of nature, 
or the power of the sub-conscious mind. 
In the second place, there is the power 
of the sub-conscious mind influenced 
directly by external suggestion; where 
the trained and skillful practitioner 
by his own suggestion, or the wise 
parent in the case of the child, calls 
into activity these remedial and cura- 
tive powers of the mind. In the third 
place, there is the power of the sub- 
conscious mind influenced indirectly 
by the conscious mind, because of faith 
in persons, systems, places, etc. And 
lastly, there is the power of the auto- 
suggestion which the sick person sends 
to the sub-conscious mind himself, by 
his determination to get well, shake off 
illness, ignore pain, etc. 

Perhaps you are thinking, " This is 
a beautiful theory, but will these prin- 
ciples work ? " They have worked in 
multitudes of cases. I could tell you 
72 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

of a man, of whom I know, bound hand 
and foot by the appetite for strong drink 
for twenty years. He came into the 
realization of his own powers through 
this method, and to-day is free and 
doing a man's work in the world. I 
could tell in detail of a man who 
has had a bitter up-hill struggle for 
forty years, who came to the verge of 
suicide because he felt there was noth- 
ing left for him in life — a complete 
nervous breakdown. That man to-day, 
after having practised these principles 
for only three weeks, is back again at 
his occupation, earning his livelihood, 
happy and strong. Or I could tell 
you of a case described to me within 
a fortnight, of a woman who came from 
a Western city. For thirty long years 
she had been the victim of fears of 
every kind, and had developed into a 
complete nervous wreck. The skilled 
physician who examined her said, 
73 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

" There is no use trying to do anything 
for her by mental suggestion; her 
case is extreme ; it is perfectly hope- 
less; nobody can help her." That 
woman, after four weeks' treatment, has 
gone back to her home again, per- 
fectly strong and in her right mind. 
These are a few results about which I 
happen to know personally. However 
it may seem to you, the individuals who 
will take these principles and incor- 
porate them in their lives, making them 
the basis of daily experience, will reap 
the same results that have come to 
many others. 

The timid and fearful child who has 
lost sight of his father in the crowded 
street, cries out with joy and reassur- 
ance, as he conies again into his father's 
presence and grasps his hand. The 
crowd may jostle him, but he is no 
longer afraid. The darkness may be 
intense, but it does not frighten him 
74 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

now. His father is there, and he holds 
his father's hand; and as they walk 
together through the night the child 
knows naught save the perfect con- 
fidence and love, that cast out all fear. 
In setting forth the psychological side 
of mental healing and while believing 
that Suggestive Therapeutics must be 
put upon a scientific and rational 
basis, nevertheless I would not have 
you miss its religious significance. In 
addition to the scientific principles in- 
volved, the deep need of our lives, the 
great need of the age in which we live, 
is to catch afresh the vision of God. 
It is possible for me to realize, 
like the little child, that God's hand 
clasps mine; that, in spite of the dark- 
ness and the storm, in spite of the 
struggle and the crowd, in spite of all 
the phantoms of fear and dread, I am 
in His presence now and always; 
nothing in the whole universe of space, 
75 



PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 

nothing in the whole eternity of time 
can ever harm me, can ever utterly 
discourage me, for I am God's child and 
His life is my life. As we grow into 
such a consciousness of the divine 
power resident within us, the hardest 
problems will be solved, darkness and 
dread, doubt, and uncertainty, with all 
the malign diseases of soul and body, 
will gradually but surely disappear. 



76 



AWAKENING LATENT MENTAL 
POWERS 



AWAKENING LATENT MENTAL 
POWERS 




HE task set every individual 
life, — clear, insistent, final — 
is this : " Work out your own 
salvation," physically, men- 
tally, morally and spiritually. The 
assurance of ultimate victory is found 
in the truth, "For it is God who 
worketh in you." In all reverence, God 
cannot accomplish man's salvation 
alone; man cannot accomplish his 
salvation apart from God. The great 
goal toward which humanity has been 
tending from the beginning, man's 
complete, all-around salvation, in all 
parts of his complex nature, is to be 
3 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

accomplished only through the co- 
operation of God and man; or better 
still, God in man. " Work out your 
own salvation, for it is God who work- 
eth in you." 

We have suggested some of the ways 
by which any individual, through the 
aid of the powers resident within, might 
learn to control his physical conditions 
and to a very large degree prevent 
sickness or disease from rinding a 
lodging place in his life. Let us now 
go a step further and consider the 
wondrous powers of the sub-conscious 
mind over man's mental life, in the 
development of his latent possibilities. 

In an article entitled, " The Energies 
of Men," published recently in the 
Philosophical Review, Professor James 
uses these words: " Most of us feel as 
if we lived habitually with a sort of 
cloud weighing upon us, below our 
highest notch of clearness in discern- 
4 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

ment, sureness in reasoning and firm- 
ness in deciding." Further on in the 
article, he describes how men from 
time to time, through various experi- 
ences, and chiefly by the aid of Sugges- 
tion, are enabled to " tap new levels of 
energy," and thus disclose in themselves 
forces of which they had been hitherto 
ignorant. 

Professor James is here describing a 
common experience. We are all more 
or less conscious that we are not living 
up to our highest mental capacity; in 
our daily work we are not expressing 
our very best ability; when we under- 
take some enterprise we do not see it 
through with that measure of power, of 
which we believe ourselves truly ca- 
pable. How many times we come to the 
end of the week, or reach the comple- 
tion of some task with the regretful 
feeling, that if we could only retrace 
our steps and try it over again, we 
5 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

should succeed much better. Then, 
there do come times to everyone of us, 
when we seem to break through this 
" cloud that rests upon us so habitu- 
ally," when we are lifted to higher 
planes of mental activity, when we can 
command our mental resources as we 
do not ordinarily. Then it is that we 
are able to do our work with a facility, 
an ease, a precision, an effectiveness, 
that causes us to marvel at our own 
skill and power. After such an experi- 
ence we naturally ask the question, 
" Why have I been able to do so easily 
and successfully what, at another time, 
I would have done laboriously and 
most unsatisfactorily ? If at some times 
I am conscious of possessing such 
powers, why not at all times ? " The 
answer lies in our ignorance of our- 
selves and the laws of our mental being. 
We all do " tap levels of new energy " 
at times, and that we cannot do so 
6 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

habitually, is due to our ignorance of 
the powers and capacities with which 
we are all endowed, and which need 
only to be called forth and developed,. 
A young man called recently and told 
me of his past life. He had lacked the 
advantages of an education in his early 
youth and had gone to work while 
quite a lad. In the course of the con- 
versation, he said, " In these last few 
years I have awakened, and come 
to see why I have failed, why I don't 
get along faster, why I am not more 
successful in my daily work." And 
then touching his head, he said, " The 
trouble is here; it is with my mind. I 
did not have the chance to study. I 
am not educated. I do not know how 
to use my mental powers; and as I 
compare myself with other men I feel 
the handicap of my mental limitations." 
How often we experience the same 
feeling as we come into the presence of 

7 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

the trained mind, with all its faculties 
at command, exhibiting in its work a 
power and skill that calls forth our 
greatest admiration. There is no more 
laudable ambition in life, than the 
ambition for personal power. Every 
earnest person pauses now and then, 
to ask the vital question: ' How can 
/ become more powerful and effective; 
how command supplies of available 
energy adequate to my need ? " 

I might bring you specific instances 
of the way in which different individuals 
throughout the world have employed 
the power of the sub-conscious mind 
to develop themselves intellectually, 
and thus made possible a more effec- 
tive and successful life. Dr. Coste 
de La Grange, a prominent French 
physician, who has been working in 
this field of investigation for years, 
tells of the way in which he experi- 
mented upon himself with auto-sug- 

8 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

gestion. He was called upon frequently 
to attend social functions. Such affairs 
were to him as unattractive as they are 
to most men. He was a ready enough 
conversationalist in his office or with 
men of his own profession, but else- 
where he was a dismal failure. So he 
tried the power of auto-suggestion, 
and found, as he states in an address 
before scientific men in Paris, that the 
conversational powers which seemed to 
be denied him in the social atmosphere, 
were given him in an unusual degree, 
and he attained a fluency and ease 
that he had never deemed possible. 
He had an ambition to write, but when 
he attempted to put his thoughts on 
paper, he found it impossible to write 
more than a dozen lines, and even these 
were far from satisfactory. Once again 
he tried, suggesting to himself that he 
should have an abundance of ideas and 
that he should be able to express them 
9 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

in an attractive form. To his surprise 
after practising in this way, he found 
he could write for hours at a stretch 
with the greatest ease. I might remind 
you of Voltaire, who tells us that more 
than once when confronted by problems 
in his literary or philosophical work, 
which he found himself incapable of 
solving, he had gone to sleep only to 
awaken in the morning to find the 
difficulty removed, or his problem 
solved. 

Coleridge tells us how again and 
again, some of his most beautiful verses 
came to him during the hours of sleep, 
after he had striven laboriously in his 
waking hours, but to no effect. All the 
great writers bear witness to the same 
experience. The mathematicians tell 
us that in solving mathematical prob- 
lems, that which could not be done in 
the waking hours has often been accom- 
plished while asleep. 
10 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

But it is not my purpose to dwell 
upon such specific cases, or describe 
the way in which the sub-conscious 
mind has operated to make mental 
effort more successful. I desire rather, 
to point out some of the general prin- 
ciples, by conforming to which every 
individual, no matter who he is or 
where he stands, may be able to call 
upon these inner forces for his own 
larger mental development. Once 
again, the first thing for us to realize, 
is the fact of our close relation to the 
Infinite and Universal energy from 
whence all power proceeds. We may 
think of energy or force, as being 
absolute and universal. It is the same 
energy that manifests itself in all the 
myriad forms of life; that expresses 
itself in various and wonderful or- 
ganisms; that is manifested in the life 
of the trees, the flowers and the grass; 
in the life of the animals, the birds, the 
11 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

fishes, and the reptiles; that finally 
reveals itself in man's complex being — 
a being so wonderful, that as we study 
him, we are fairly amazed at the ease 
and power with which he is able to 
direct this stream of energy that flows 
through his being. 

We are all naturally proud. We like 
to think of ourselves as the originators 
of power; we like to believe that we 
create energy of various kinds. But 
as a matter of fact, no man, strictly 
speaking, creates energy. He is simply 
a specialized transmitter of the Univer- 
sal Energy, of God's powers. Let me 
bring an illustration from the field of 
electricity. No scientist can tell what 
electricity is. Various definitions have 
been attempted, but they all fall short 
of the reality. If you were to talk with 
the electrician in his laboratory, you 
might say, " It is marvelous how you 
have been able to harness electricity 

12 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

and make it serve your commands," 
and he would reply, " You mistake 
the facts entirely. Electricity does not 
serve me. I am not the master of 
electricity. I am its servant. Elec- 
tricity is the master. All that I have 
done or can do, is simply to observe the 
phenomena, to study the laws, and then 
to create certain conditions by means of 
which it may please electricity to ex- 
press itself. I construct this piece of 
machinery, and then if it pleases, elec- 
tricity may manifest itself and I obtain 
the current in my machine. But I am 
simply electricity's servant." In much 
the same relation do we stand to the 
Infinite Energy of the universe. We 
do not originate or create any energy 
whatsoever; we are but the servants, 
the instruments which this energy uses; 
we are the channels through which this 
energy is transmitted. We may, be- 
cause of our individualized powers, our 

13 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

personalities, our own wills, turn it into 
this or that channel; we may apply it 
wisely or misdirect it foolishly, but the 
source of all energy is ever the same. 
Infinite energy is in us and streams 
through us, while we seek to give it 
adequate expression through the various 
functions of mind and body. Our chief 
concern, then, should be to perfect the 
mechanism, and keep the organism in 
good working order, with soul, mind 
and body so skillfully attuned, as 
to provide a free channel for the 
noblest expression of this Eternal 
Energy. If we are to realize to the 
full our inner resources of power, we 
must learn to think more and more 
continually of our intimate relation to 
the Infinite Energy. Realizing this, 
no one is limited in any absolute sense, 
and the possibility of ' tapping new 
levels of power," is always ours, for the 
supply is inexhaustible. 

14 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

We need also to recognize that each 
of us is capable of the highest and best 
in the range of mental activity. Think 
for a moment, of the wonderful way in 
which man is being revealed to himself 
to-day. We talk about the new knowl- 
edge of nature that has been disclosed 
to us in the last century of scientific 
investigation; but the newest of the 
New Knowledge and by far the greatest, 
is the New Knowledge of Man. And 
this new land of Man is being explored 
by the daring Columbuses of our own 
time, as it never has been explored in 
the past. Think of what man has 
accomplished. When he first came into 
existence upon this planet he found 
only a wild, trackless, undeveloped 
wilderness. All the arts and industries, 
all tools and machinery, have been 
developed by man. Every institution 
that exists in the world to-day, — 
educational, political, religious, — has 

15 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

been thought out and then wrought out 
by man. All sciences, all philosophies, 
all literature — yea, the very language 
which he speaks, are the result of man's 
creative thought. Compare the life 
as it is lived in a city like New York 
with the life in the old Colonial days of 
this country. Picture the private houses 
and the public buildings, the multitude 
of conveniences and comforts, the trans- 
portation, lighting and heating facili- 
ties, the telegraph and the telephone, — 
the things which we are all using to-day 
with scarcely a thought, and then 
remember that they were all unknown 
and undreamed of, one hundred years 
ago. It is man who has wrought these 
wonders. As the old astronomer said, 
when he turned his telescope towards 
the starry heavens, " the greatest won- 
der of all is the being at the small end 
of the telescope, — the man who has 
invented the telescope and brought 

16 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

these unseen worlds into our range of 
vision; who weighs them, explores 
their substances and measures their 
distances. 

When we turn to man's achievements 
in special fields of human activity, we 
find in the realm of music such names 
as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, 
Liszt, Rubenstein and Paderewski; 
in art, Phidias, Raphael, Angelo, Rem- 
brandt, Corot and Millet; in inven- 
tion, Watt, Morse, Stephenson, Fulton, 
and Edison; in the realm of poetry, 
Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, 
Tennyson and Browning; in the realm 
of discovery and exploration, Columbus, 
Cook, Livingston and Peary ; in science, 
Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Hum- 
boldt and Darwin; the renowned ora- 
tors, Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, 
Gladstone and our own Phillips. Think 
of the deep wisdom of the prophets, 
philosophers and seers, Plato, Isaiah, 
17 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

Kant, Hegel and Emerson; of the 
illustrious leaders of mankind, Moses, 
Luther, Cromwell, Washington, Lin- 
coln; yes, of the religious leaders and 
saviours of the world, Buddha,, Con- 
fucius, Zoroaster, and, greatest of all, 
because He leads them all, both by 
what He was in Himself and by what 
He taught, Jesus of Nazareth. How 
sublime these lives, how glorious their 
achievements! It ought to lift our 
hearts to the highest pitch of enthusias- 
tic gratitude, just to think what men 
have accomplished in the world. 

But what shall we think of the other 
lives ? Are these we have mentioned, 
these geniuses of humanity, composed 
of exceptional clay ? Do they belong 
to an exclusive class that the rank and 
file of men and women need never 
expect to enter ? The old saying that 
we generally use in a disparaging sense, 
" Human nature is about the same the 

18 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

world over," can be applied in a vastly 
higher sense, " Human nature is the 
same the world over." All men have 
like faculties, like powers, differing 
only in degree but not in kind. In 
every soul there is the germ, the inborn 
capacity, the latent ability, that might, 
if opportunity and time were afforded, 
unfold into the philosopher, the poet, 
the artist or the musician. Every man 
is, in embryo^a possible hero, or prophet, 
or seer, or saint; all that is needed is 
the opportunity and the time for de- 
velopment. Human nature is the same. 
What one man can do, or has done, 
reveals an open door that all other men 
may enter. Whatever any man pos- 
sesses must be potential in all others. 
This is the great significance of the Life 
Beyond. We shall not be translated 
through the experience of Death to 
" seats of everlasting bliss," but we 
shall enter spheres of existence, where 

19 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

We must continue to unfold our latent 
powers, continue our growth and de- 
velopment, as perhaps we never had 
opportunity in this world, or else were 
too indifferent or ignorant to seize, 
when it came. And that will be Heaven 
for you and for me. Nothing less than 
that could ever satisfy the awakened 
soul of man. 

When one begins to think of himself 
in this way, as essentially one with 
these greatest and noblest of earth; 
when he begins to recognize that he is 
himself capable of the highest and best 
attainments, he is taking a long stride 
towards the realization of power in 
his own life. We need no one else to 
tell us why we fail and come short of 
the highest. We have not confidence 
in our own selves, in our own ability 
and powers. We belittle ourselves and 
constantly underrate our abilities. If 
we are given a task, at once we say, 
20 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

" Well, I am afraid I can't do that." 
We attempt to solve some problem, 
with the thought at the very outset, 
that perhaps we shall fail. We enter 
some new employment, with the fear 
or misgiving that we shall not be 
able to give satisfaction. We are 
failing a dozen times every week, 
because we have not enough faith in 
our power to do the thing, and to do it 
better than anybody else in God's 
world. But with the new light gained, 
we can no longer honestly tarry in the 
atmosphere of disparagement and self- 
belittling; we can no longer complain 
because we have not been born as 
others, or endowed with different 
powers and faculties. 

Read the lives of the great geniuses — 
follow them from the cradle to the 
glorious heights of success, and then 
take to your own heart the lesson. 
Most of these great ones of earth have 

21 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

come out of poverty, through hard- 
ships, trials and privations of every 
kind. The greatness they attained was 
not won easily, or suddenly, but by 
dint of hard, prodigious labours, through 
the greatest sacrifices, by most persistent 
efforts, centered in one direction. The 
men and women whose names we 
reverence in literature, carried their 
manuscripts from publisher to pub- 
lisher, only to meet rebuff or refusal. 
Over and over again did they re-write 
and re-polish their material; and only 
at last, oftentimes not until after 
their death in direst poverty, was their 
greatness recognized. Greatness is al- 
ways arrived at slowly, — through strug- 
gle and toil, through pain and sacrifice, 
in loneliness and grief. I am not so 
sure but that the only genius is the 
genius for hard and unremitting work. 
Few of the geniuses were born with the 
golden spoon in their mouths, or with 

22 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

some great faculty already developed. 
It is not the precocious child that turns 
out the man of genius; usually, he is 
forgotten, ere he emerges from his teens. 
Thank God! that these great lives are 
of the same mould as ours ; and 
if they have attained heights and de- 
veloped powers that we know nothing 
about, it is not because the same powers 
do not exist in us; it is rather because 
they have worked as we have not, they 
have come to understand themselves 
and learned how to call forth their 
powers, while we have only skimmed 
life's surface; they have not been con- 
tent with anything but the highest and 
best, while we are satisfied with the 
paltry mediocre. If we are going to 
be saved mentally, — for God is seek- 
ing to save men mentally, as well as 
morally and spiritually, — it will be 
because we will to work out our own 
salvation through confidence in our- 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

selves, because we believe in our power 
and ability to achieve only the highest. 
The next necessity, if we are to realize 
an increase of power in our lives, is 
that we shall do some clear, definite 
and accurate thinking about ourselves. 
The old Greek philosopher was right, 
when he said that the most important 
knowledge was the knowledge of one- 
self, and yet it seems as if this is the 
branch of knowledge in which we are 
most deficient. We must know our- 
selves, if we are to grow along the 
lines of power. We need to analyze 
ourselves; to sit down and confront 
ourselves as we might another individ- 
ual. We must discover whether the 
intellectual or the emotional or the vo- 
litional temperament predominates in us. 
We need to ask the question, " As I go 
through life do I see things, or do I think 
things ? " Most of us only see things, 
and do little or no real thinking. John 

24 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

Ruskin says somewhere, that the reason 
we all cannot sit down with pencil and 
paper, and draw a horse, is because we 
have never really thought a horse; 
we have seen thousands of horses, but 
the man who can draw a horse and put 
the curves where they ought to be, and 
make the picture look like the living 
animal, is the man who not only sees, 
but thinks the horse. 

Ask the question, " Am I merely 
looking with everybody else, or am I 
perceiving clearly and definitely the 
actual conditions, facts and experi- 
ences in my every-day life ? " Discover 
whether you are strong or weak in 
translating your thoughts into action. 
It may be that you belong to the class 
of Amiel and Joubert, wonderfully 
talented and cultivated men, and yet, 
to the amazement of all their friends, 
they never accomplished anything 
worthy their powers. As Saint Beuve 

25 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

said of Joubert, he lived in the region 
between " The Time-has-not-come-yet" 
and ' The Time-h as-passed." His 
friends repeatedly asked him, " When 
are you going to write the great book ? " 
His reply invariably was, " The time 
has not arrived yet." The years rolled 
on and at last his pathetic answer to 
their questionings was, " The time has 
passed." Multitudes of men are in the 
same tragic class. We have talents 
enough and time enough and ability 
enough, God knows, but we fail in the 
actual doing. Find out whether your 
mental life is simply expending itself 
in the thin air of desires and plans and 
hopes, while you dawdle and procrasti- 
nate till at last you, too, will be obliged 
to sadly say, " The time is passed. I 
have lost the opportunity for accom- 
plishing what I might have done." 
Take an exact inventory of your attain- 
ments, and thus come to know yourself. 

26 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

Draw the line about your strong points 
and underline your weak points. Find 
out what your limitations are. Be glad of 
the things that you can do and do well, 
and then face honestly the things where 
you fail, the work you bungle. When 
you come to such clear knowledge of 
yourself, you are in a position to begin 
effective work in self -development and 
in overcoming failings or weaknesses. 
The first requirement is that one 
should possess the maximum of mental 
control. I have emphasized the need 
of mental concentration in all of life, 
if we would achieve results. It is 
especially true in this realm of our 
intellectual powers. We have taken the 
burning glass and placed a piece of 
paper on the table and let the sun's 
rays fall directly upon it, with the result 
that the paper is merely warmed; then 
by focusing the sun's rays on one defi- 
nite spot, we can so concentrate them 

27 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

that the intense heat burns a hole in 
the paper. The power of concentra- 
tion is as true of man's intellectual life 
as it is of the sun's rays. Most of us 
have never learned how to focus our 
mental powers on one thing for any 
length of time. If you were to walk 
down the street, and ask the first thou- 
sand people you met to concentrate 
their minds to the exclusion of every- 
thing else on some one idea for a single 
minute, you would not find twenty- 
five who could do it. That is why we 
fail in the development of our latent 
mental powers. We do not know how 
to control our thoughts. The result is 
that they wander here and there, like 
the will-o'-the-wisp, darting first in one 
direction and then in another. If you 
are discussing with a friend some 
religious or political topic, by and by 
you say, " Well, I don't know; it may 
be that you are right," and there you 

28 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

drop the conversation. This is where 
most of us leave any serious train of 
thought, — in the air. Did you ever 
think what a confession of mental weak- 
ness it is ? No man ought to stop short 
of conclusions in his thinking. Think 
the subject out to some end. It makes 
no difference whether you arrive at 
the conclusions of others, but, at any rate 
reach some conclusions of your own. 
What would become of the workman, 
who began a piece of work, and in a 
few moments took up something else, 
and then something else, etc. ? His 
services would not be required very 
long. And yet in our mental life we 
keep wandering from subject to sub- 
ject, from field to field; and even after 
we have analyzed ourselves, and see 
clearly the strong and weak places in 
our mental life, we lack the power to 
concentrate on the things so sadly 
needed. 

29 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

There are three men in history, well 
worth studying for their remarkable 
powers of mental control. Napoleon 
was one of the greatest men intellectu- 
ally, of whom history speaks. His 
biographers tell us that naturally he 
was of a very sympathetic, humane and 
generous nature, and yet, if that be 
true, there were many times when he 
could absolutely exclude every such 
thought, and become as cold and hard 
as steel. He tells us himself that he used 
to keep every subject in a separate 
compartment of his mind, and he said, 
;< I never let them get mixed; when I 
am working on one particular subject 
I am working with the contents of that 
particular compartment, and not of 
any other." After he had prepared for 
a campaign, he could throw the matter 
off his mind completely. At Jena he 
slept on the ground while the battle 
was raging. At Austerlitz, after he had 

30 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

made the final preparations for battle, 
he lay down on the straw in a little 
hut and fell asleep as peacefully as a 
child. Therein lies the secret of the 
greatness of Napoleon. Mr. Smalley, 
one of the recent biographers of Glad- 
stone, tells us that the mental char- 
acteristic which lay at the foundation of 
Gladstone's great career, was his ability 
to exclude from his mind everything 
but the subject immediately in hand. 
Jacob Biis in his Story of President 
Roosevelt states that in his judgment 
the secret of Roosevelt's success or 
greatness as a man lies in his power to 
shut everything out of his mind except 
the one thing he is considering. Mr. 
Roosevelt himself tells us that he is 
not a great man, that he is possessed 
of no special intellectual ability, that 
he has no exceptional knowledge. In 
view of these statements, it would seem 
that the secret of Mr. Roosevelt's 

31 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

power to do things, to bring things to 
pass while other men theorize and talk, 
is found in his powers of mental control. 
Amid the wild excitement, at the close 
of the Convention which placed him 
in the Vice-President's chair, Albert 
Shaw says that Mr. Roosevelt sat in 
an inner room quietly reading Thu- 
cydides. 

There is nothing in all the world that 
would mean more to our lives mentally, 
physically and morally than to per- 
sistently practice, with all the strength 
we possess, the power of control- 
ling our minds, by excluding all 
other things, and concentrating our 
thoughts and desires upon those ele- 
ments of strength which we wish to 
attain. 

This is the key to the whole problem of 
mental development, — that we shall 
learn how to live continually in the 
presence of the thoughts or faculties 

32 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

which we earnestly desire to see de- 
veloped in ourselves. If a person 
aspires to become an artist and is dead 
in earnest, he seeks out the living 
artists, and gets as close to them as he 
can; he reads the biographies, and 
studies the pictures of the great art- 
ists of the past — in a word, he lives 
in the realm of Art. If a man 
wants to attain success in the com- 
mercial world he observes the lives 
of successful merchants; he touches 
as many of these lives personally as 
he can, studies their methods and 
tries to discover the secret of their 
power. He lives, in his thinking, in 
the realm of business or commerce. If 
a man desires to develop himself along 
any line whatsoever, the secret of his 
ultimate success will be found in this, 
that he has the determination and per- 
sistency to live constantly in the pres- 
ence of his Supreme Ambition. When 

33 






AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

the conscious mind can see clearly the 
kind of power and mental force re- 
quired, and impresses that idea upon 
the sub-conscious, with the deepest 
and strongest desire for its realization, 
the impression thus made will call 
forth, in time, the power and intelli- 
gence required. 

The law is this : " The sub-conscious 
will respond with the exact quantity 
and quality, that you were conscious 
of, or that you mentally discerned, at 
the time the impression was made." 
It is, therefore, extremely important to 
elevate the conscious mind into the 
largest and most superior states of 
thought and feeling possible, before 
the effort is made to impress the sub- 
conscious. Thus to live constantly in 
the deep interior feeling of greater 
power, greater intelligence, greater per- 
sonal worth and greater mental bril- 
liancy, is to constantly call upon the 

34 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

sub-conscious to produce these things 
in ever larger measure. 

We have gone far enough in human 
development, and have explored suffi- 
ciently in this " new country " of man, 
to say without exaggeration, that the 
possibilities for human development 
here on this planet, not to speak of the 
future, are practically limitless. Any 
individual can be, in time, what he 
earnestly desires to be, if he but set 
his face steadfastly in the direction of 
that one thing and bring all his powers 
to bear upon its attainment. 

The power of auto-suggestion in the 
matter of solving special problems, or 
making critical choices, in the desire to 
obtain unusual brilliancy for some 
special task, or in developing the 
faculty of memory, has been demon- 
strated again and again. There is 
nothing so ordinary, so trivial in every- 
day life concerning which you cannot 

35 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

or should not call upon your inner 
powers for help. Above all things let 
us remember that whatever special 
end w T e may have in view, our daily, 
yes, hourly motto must be, to aim 
higher. As we fall asleep each night 
let it be in the thought, " It matters 
not how well or how poorly I did my 
work to-day, I will be more successful, 
I am going to do more effective work 
to-morrow." Let your thoughts of 
power always lead your actual expres- 
sion of power. Never allow yourself 
to be satisfied with what you are doing. 
The complete salvation which God 
has planned for every man is a salvation 
of his all-around nature. God is seek- 
ing to save man physically and men- 
tally, as well as morally and spiritually, 
by teaching him that it is God who 
works in, as man works out. Every 
vision of truth we catch, every particle 
of power we gain, all the light that 

36 



AWAKENING LATENT POWERS 

shines on our pathway, is to be em- 
ployed by us in attaining this perfect 
symmetry of life and character. Let 
us ever remember, that into the Life 
Beyond we must carry ourselves, noth- 
ing else but ourselves. The external 
gains we make here, of wealth and 
position and fame, must all be left 
behind when we pass the portals of 
Death. Shall we carry a Self just 
emerging from its infancy, mentally, 
morally and spiritually, or shall we go 
into that clearer light of the Eternal 
Day having developed to the full the 
powers resident within us, there to con- 
tinue our growth and development, 
forever and ever? Let us be so in 
earnest with ourselves, let us realize 
so clearly that " all things are ours," 
because we are God's, eternally His, 
that every step we take shall be a step 
forward into ever-increasing power, 
" till the clouds break and the shadows 
forever flee away." 

37 



THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 







THE 
ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

HE words of Jesus, "If any 
man will do His will, he shall 
know of the teaching," might 
be translated so as to read, 
" Whoever really and earnestly chooses 
to do right and perseveres in that atti- 
tude, shall learn how." The problem 
of problems in moral development is 
this problem of the how. All of us 
are familiar with the ideals of moral 
character, but how to realize these 
lofty ideals in ourselves and in Society 
is the supreme question. The inner 
life of every individual presents a 
battle ground for opposing forces. No 

41 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

one of us is either wholly good or 
wholly bad. We are all sometimes 
good, and sometimes bad. We know 
that we are possessed of impulses 
good, and impulses evil, of tendencies 
upward and tendencies downward. 
There are times when we carry our- 
selves with a pride and arrogance that 
is an offence and injury to our friends; 
there are other times when we live the 
quiet, humble and unobtrusive life. 
We are sometimes selfish and at other 
times unselfish. There are days when 
we are able to live serenely in the higher 
reaches of our nature, when our think- 
ing and our actions find beautiful 
expression on the high plane of the 
Spirit; and then there are other days 
when we seem to drop to lower planes 
where thoughts, words and deeds are 
unworthy our manhood and woman- 
hood. How often we say in wonder and 
sad regret, with the Apostle Paul, 

42 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

' The good that I would do, I do not; 
but the evil which I would not, that I 
do." This experience, common to every 
life, only reveals the fact that here on 
this earthly plane we are souls in-the- 
making; our characters are not yet 
fully formed; we are in the process of 
character-building. No one has yet 
realized all the wondrous possibilities 
of human character, save Him we call 
Perfect. We are all making more or 
less rapid progress toward the shining 
heights beyond. 

Doubtless all my readers regard 
themselves as moral characters, and as 
such they are regarded by their friends. 
In a general sense this is true — we 
are moral men and women. And yet 
in the strict and absolute sense, is it 
true of any one of us ? Besides the 
actual moral convictions we possess, 
there are a thousand ties that bind us 
to right conduct, — the reputation we 

43 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

bear among men and upon which we 
pride ourselves, the ties of home and 
family, our personal pride, the ideals 
and sentiments of the community in 
w T hich we live, the fear lest w T e lose our 
self-respect, or even the baser fear 
lest shame and disgrace may come 
upon us. All these and many other 
considerations are tremendous influ- 
ences in the life of every individual, in 
preventing wrong actions. 

But the truly moral man, in the 
absolute sense, is the man who at all 
times and under all circumstances in- 
variably does the right. Can you say 
that this definition is true of your life ? 
It is a question that only you yourself 
can answer. Try to imagine yourself 
with all restrictions removed, what 
would you do then, what kind of a 
life would yours be under such cir- 
cumstances ? Were there not a repu- 
tation to sustain, were there no ties of 

44 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

home and friends to bind me, were 
there no fear of detection and conse- 
quent disgrace, — were all these re- 
strictions swept away, how would I 
act, what would my conduct be ? This 
is the supreme test of moral character. 
To put the question in another form, 
think of yourself in some foreign land 
or strange community where not a 
soul knows you, where nobody about 
whom you care can see or hear, — 
under these conditions what would 
you do and what would you be ? Per- 
haps no one of us can answer such a 
hypothetical question with any degree 
of certainty. Our reputation is what 
men think us to be, our character is 
what God knows us to be, and un- 
fortunately these do not often agree. 
We only know that we are to-day 
what we actually are, not always what 
men think we are. This is why a 
man's reputation in the outside world 

45 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

is sometimes very different from the 
opinion held of him in his own 
home, or by his intimate friends. 
Heredity, environment, and the use 
that we have made of all the influences 
proceeding from these two sources, 
have brought us to our present stage of 
moral development, but we are still in 
the process of character-building. We 
have not attained as yet. Under certain 
conditions and facing other circum- 
stances we might do very differently 
from what we now do. There cannot 
be the slightest question if these are the 
facts about human life, that the main 
business of every man and woman is 
to go on steadily, persistently and ear- 
nestly towards the perfection of moral 
character, the completion of the work 
that is now in progress in every human 
life. In this inner struggle, where 
opposing forces are constantly contend- 
ing, no one can doubt that our supreme 

46 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

duty is daily and hourly to fight the 
battle with all forms of moral weak- 
ness, never yielding to the tendencies 
which are downward and degrading, 
but always and only to those influences 
which are upward and ennobling. 

As a matter of fact, is it not true 
that since the restraining hand of 
parent or teacher has been removed, 
we have remained in our moral lives 
pretty much what we were at that 
time ? Parents and teachers play a 
tremendous part in shaping moral char- 
acter, fashioning moral ideals, and de- 
veloping right habits within us. But 
after youth has passed, after we leave 
home and schoolroom, and begin to 
live our own lives as men and women 
in the world, frankly, — have we made 
much real progress in moral character 
since then? Character, we are told, 
is practically fixed for most people 
when they reach the age of 25. How 

47 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

many of us are rigorously and system- 
atically taking ourselves in hand every 
day in this matter of overcoming moral 
imperfections and weaknesses ? We 
excuse and attempt to justify ourselves 
on various pretexts. We say, "It is 
my temperament," or " It was char- 
acteristic of my parents," or else, " I 
am what I am; " and so we go on 
spending our time in the search for 
wealth or happiness, discharging more 
or less faithfully the duties of daily life, 
and yet, how little real, earnest and 
intelligent effort do we give each day to 
the eradication of these moral weak- 
nesses, to the completion within our- 
selves of the truly moral character! 

We may divide wrongdoing in man's 
moral life into two general classes, (1) 
sins and (2) faults. This may seem to 
some a distinction without a difference, 
and yet by common agreement we seem 
to be justified in making such a dis- 

48 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

tinction. Moral weakness, then, may 
consist in actual sin, or serious fault; 
and yet whether it be a sin or fault, it 
is a moral weakness; and as such it 
should be recognized and banished from 
life for ever. Upon that we must stand 
agreed. We all know what is meant 
by sin. There are the grosser sins 
of the appetites and of the passions; 
there are the heinous sins which Society 
recognizes as such, against which its 
laws are directed, to the infringe- 
ment of which various penalties are 
attached; there are the sins of pride, 
which go beyond mere human faults, 
in the harm wrought; there are the 
many sins of selfishness, such as avarice, 
greed, jealousy, envy, hate, cruelty, 
etc., which the laws of Society do not 
reach, but which are none the less sins. 
Such are the more flagrant sins, the 
more heinous wrongs, the more deadly 
weaknesses in human life, and we are 

49 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

familiar with them all. They confront 
us constantly in the columns of the 
daily papers, in the lives of those about 
us, oftentimes even in our own lives. 
They are the black sins, if you will, 
that bring greatest suffering and dep- 
rivation into human hearts and homes. 
Yet while we assume that we are not 
guilty of any of these sins, there may 
be a tendency in our lives — God only 
knows — leading in any one of these 
various directions, a tendency of which 
we may be conscious, which must 
needs be overcome before character is 
attained. All the criminals are not 
behind the bars. There are multi- 
tudes of men and women in the world, 
whom Society does not regard as crimi- 
nals, whose sins have never been 
detected by the eye of the law, who 
imagine that they have safely covered 
their tracks and hidden deep away the 
sins which have been and are still 

50 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

being committed. But whether they 
are detected by Society, whether their 
friends ever come to see them in their 
true light or not, the influence on 
character is just as deadly, — often 
far more so, — for the undetected crimi- 
nal, as for the one in prison cell. 

It is, however, to this second class 
of moral weaknesses that I want to 
especially direct your thought, because 
here is where we are most apt to be 
blind and indifferent, — the faults of 
life, the infinitesimal wrongs, the petty 
sins, the temperamental weaknesses, 
the personal foibles and failings of 
men, the ten thousand different im- 
perfections with which the daily life 
of every one abounds. They are not 
so flagrant that we can call them actual 
sins, but they are harmful; they are 
working mischief in ourselves and others 
continually; they are keeping us back 
from the highest attainments; and yet 

51 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

we have grown so used to their presence 
in our lives that we scarcely give them 
a serious thought. 

These faults with which human lives 
abound are associated with every part 
of man's life. There are faults of the 
tongue, of the hand, of the reason, of 
the conscience, of the affections, of the 
sentiments, — there is no part of man's 
complex nature that is free from these 
failings. Sometimes they are due to 
a lack of activity, and sometimes to an 
excess of energy. The fault exists be- 
cause there is too much or too little of 
what, in proper proportions, is not bad 
in itself. 

I would it were possible for us to see 
the danger, the mischief and the harm 
of these minor moral defects, if allowed 
to continue unchecked in our lives, and 
first, because these faults are the step- 
ping stones to actual sins. They go 
before, they prepare the way, they tend 

52 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

to dull the moral sensibilities, and blur 
the moral vision; so that at last we 
find ourselves no longer able to dis- 
criminate clearly between right and 
wrong, to draw the line sharply between 
the high or the low ideal. Carelessness 
in speech may not be sin at first, but 
let it be continued, and by degrees it 
almost inevitably leads to falsehood. 
The habit of exaggeration in conversa- 
tion seems trivial, and yet, if unwatched, 
creates the mental confusion where one 
does not know whether he is telling 
the actual truth or not. It may be 
unintentional, for I am not speaking of 
conscious dishonesty which is always 
sin, but unconsciously these little faults 
of carelessness and exaggeration in 
speech lead to falsehood and misrepre- 
sentation that work actual injury to 
the lives of others. There is a wide 
margin, I grant you, between honesty 
and dishonesty, where it is difficult to 

53 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

draw the line and say just when one 
becomes actually dishonest. There is 
carelessness and irregularity and often- 
times a low sense of honour, yet we do 
not feel like calling these things dis- 
honest in themselves. I have heard a 
business man, speaking of an associate, 
use language like this: " I do not like 
to say he is dishonest. I do not think 
that he means to be dishonest, but his 
sense of honour permits him to do things 
that I could never do;" and yet, this 
low sense of honour, this carelessness 
and irregularity which may not be 
intentional dishonesty, inevitably tends 
towards the dishonest act and becomes 
at last the veritable sin. These faults 
which seem so trivial, which we often- 
times regard of not sufficient importance 
to grapple with and put out of our 
lives, are the stepping stones to serious 
things, to graver faults, to more heinous 
wrongs, to actual sin itself. They are 

54 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

the influences which undermine char- 
acter, weakening its structure at the 
very basis of manhood and woman- 
hood. 

Another reason why these faults work 
such havoc in moral life, is because of 
their cumulative tendency. If we could 
separate the little faults committed 
to-day from the same faults committed 
to-morrow, and so on through the 
week, and keep them separate, perhaps 
no great harm would be done; but as 
the fault is repeated over and over, it 
seems to grow in its intensity and 
cumulative power. To illustrate, a 
little sharpness in the voice now and 
then may not be altogether an un- 
pleasant thing. It may furnish some 
of the spice of life, as we say. We tire of 
people of the " patient Griselda " type, 
so passive that they scarcely speak 
above a whisper, who never dare call 
their souls their own. There are 

55 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

occasions when we like to see the spirit 
flash out, the temper of a man assert 
itself, as in the case of standing up for 
one's rights. But add to that manifes- 
tation of temper a little more temper, 
and then a little more, and then still 
a little more, and by and by you have 
the shrew, the scold, the nagging wife 
or husband, who poisons the atmos- 
phere and makes life miserable for all 
around. Such faults multiply them- 
selves, they gain in intensity and power 
as they go on unwatched and un- 
checked, and by and by the thing which 
at the outset was trivial, becomes a 
serious fault, a grave flaw, a great 
weakness in one's moral life. These 
faults are also harmful and mischievous 
in the extreme, because they silently 
propagate themselves and work injury 
in directions that were never dreamed 
of. There is the pinhole of rust in 
the roof. You do not call a painter, 

56 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

it seems so slight a thing; it only lets 
a small drop of water through, and that 
very slowly; surely not much harm 
will be done before spring. But leaks 
go on working day and night, and the 
dampness finds its way into the attic, 
and by and by through the wall, into 
the next story, behind the bookcases; 
and still down to the lower story where 
the costly pictures and engravings hang ; 
the servants come down-stairs sneezing, 
the children are coughing, the books are 
mildewed, the pictures damaged, and 
at last the little leak in the roof, if 
neglected, becomes a potent force to 
work harm and injury, not only to the 
house itself but to all its inmates. The 
power of even the smallest fault, allowed 
to go on unchecked in human life, 
works its injury through a thousand 
different avenues and carries its mis- 
chief in directions of which we may 
have never dreamed ., 

57 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

But perhaps the greatest injury 
wrought by these faults of moral life 
lies in the fact that they destroy inevi- 
tably the beauty, symmetry and nobility 
of character. There is something in the 
very word character that implies har- 
monious combination, fineness and the 
proper sense of proportion. There is 
no nobler word in the English language. 
Character means symmetry; it means 
all-around nobility; it means well- 
balanced proportion of all faculties 
and virtues. When we speak of one 
as being " a strong character," this is 
essentially what we have in mind — 
a well-balanced, a symmetrical, a beau- 
tifully proportioned man or woman. 
Now the little fault overlays the beauty, 
mars the symmetry, or destroys the 
beautiful proportion of virtues in human 
life. There are different ways of 
destroying the beauty of a picture. 
You can cut and slash it from its 

58 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

frame, or, as in times of war, the 
cannon ball may come crashing through 
the wall and destroy it at once, where it 
hangs. Or some masterpiece of art 
may hang neglected in a convent 
kitchen, where the steam from the 
range, and the smoke from the chimney, 
and the dust of ages gather upon it; 
these incrustations of time may wrap 
themselves about it, and by and by 
the beauty of the picture has vanished 
as effectually as if it had been dragged 
from its frame and burned in the fire. 
This is what these faults, these moral 
weaknesses and failings and defects do 
for human character. They mar, they 
overlay, they become like unsightly 
incrustations that wrap themselves 
about us; and so inevitably, as time 
goes on, instead of being the noble 
man and the beautiful woman we might 
have been, the beauty or symmetry of 
our characters has well-nigh vanished. 

59 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

We all love precious stones, but no one 
wants to own an imperfect jewel. The 
dealer in precious stones says, " This 
would be a very valuable diamond, but 
you see that flaw — it is not worth a 
quarter of its seeming value." And 
no man wants a diamond with a flaw. 
Or he says, " Your emerald is large 
and beautiful, but it is feathered; " 
and when you hear that about the stone, 
how it instantly sinks in your estima- 
tion. Or your opal may give forth 
beautiful reflections, but it is imperfect 
because there is a scratch across its 
face, and you lose all pride in wearing 
it. It is just the same with character. 
These faults destroy the beauty and 
the perfection of life, that God waits to 
reveal in every one of us; and by 
indulging such faults we limit our- 
selves and diminish our influence for 
good. How many there are all about 
us, in whom we see splendid qualities 

60 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

and noble virtues — yes, but side by 
side with these excellencies are grave 
faults, great weaknesses, many failings. 
There is no tree in all nature so gor- 
geous as the red maple, whether in its 
spring blossoming or autumn colouring. 
But it usually grows in a swamp, and 
to reach it you have to pick your way 
carefully from bog to bog, generally 
soiling, your clothes and wetting your 
feet, and you come back from the 
expedition wondering why in the world 
red maples have to grow in swamps. 
So there is many a life, beautiful to 
look upon from a distance, noble in 
its virtues, strong in many qualities, — 
but it is surrounded by a swamp of 
faults; and the life which might be 
the source of inspiration and strength 
has limited itself, has diminished its 
powers, has weakened tremendously 
its influence. 

Oh! that we might see how these 
fil 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

faults which we are content to tolerate 
in ourselves, which we go on indulging 
day after day, which we justify or con- 
done on the flimsiest pretext, are really 
moral weaknesses and defects, things 
that mar our lives and keep us from 
the highest attainments, and may, if 
unchecked, undermine and destroy char- 
acter ! 

What is the true method of over- 
coming these moral defects ? Here is 
where the new Psychology comes in 
to throw tremendous light on this 
problem of the How. As religious 
teachers we have been altogether too 
prone to spend our time in dealing 
with abstract questions of theology, 
or else we have been content to hold 
up the ideal of the perfect life, — all 
of which is right and necessary; but 
where we have failed has been in our 
answers to the question, " How can I 
attain the perfection of life and char- 

62 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

acter revealed in Jesus Christ ? " Per- 
haps we have not known just how our- 
selves, and we ought to be profoundly 
grateful to God that through the in- 
vestigations of the newer psychologists 
we have received so large a measure of 
light on this great problem of how the 
moral life within us is to be developed 
towards the highest and divines t ideals. 

According to Psychology, there is a 
physical basis for every virtue and for 
every vice. Back in the brain there is 
the centre from which proceed all 
manifestations and expressions, both 
of good or evil. Prof. De Mott, in his 
famous lecture on " The Building of 
Character," uses these significant 
words : 

' The physical basis of a vicious life 
is a net-work of trunk lines in which 
the incarrying waves of stimulation 
waken in the soul a host of accustomed 
activities, such as vile memories, allur- 

63 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

ing imaginations, craving appetites and 
their like, having well-worn routes 
through the out-carrying nerves to 
whatever lines of conduct have been 
followed in their development. The 
physical basis of a virtuous life is a 
network of trunk lines where the in- 
coming waves of stimulation on reach- 
ing the cerebral hemispheres of the 
brain find their well-worn tracks, with 
switches already set, leading to the God- 
given higher possessions of the soul — 
holy memories, pure imaginations, con- 
centrated ambitions, righteous judg- 
ments and a will, whose nerve connec- 
tions with these higher faculties is so 
perfect that at once the commands for 
right conduct are flashed forth through 
the out-going nerve tracks, and instantly 
obeyed. Here we stand face to face 
with a tremendous fact. Every volun- 
tary act, whether good or evil, beats 
its own path a little smoother, so to 

64 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

speak, for another of like character. 
Every day we live, deciding against 
the right, we are voluntarily strength- 
ening with our own blood the meshes 
of our physical organism which at last 
bind us body and soul, wretched slaves 
to passions and appetites of our own 
nurturing." 

Here is the statement for the physical 
basis of the moral life, or its opposite, 
from a scientific authority. Every noble 
and every ignoble act may be traced 
back to its own brain centre. The law 
of brain building is exactly the same in 
this respect, as the law of muscle 
building. Every time we exercise the 
physical muscles we are strengthening 
them and their power to accomplish 
results. Every time we excite or exer- 
cise a feeling or sentiment or train of 
thought, whether it is high or low, we 
are strengthening the brain centre, 
whence that feeling or sentiment or 

65 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

activity proceeds. Every time we live 
in the realm of pure thoughts, we are 
strengthening by the law of suggestion 
the brain centre from which pure action 
proceeds. Every moment we spend in 
the atmosphere of impure thinking we 
are strengthening the brain centre from 
which all impure action proceeds. This 
is the physical basis for all our thinking 
and for all our actions. But, and this 
is the vital thing to remember, by our 
thinking, we can diminish the activity 
of certain brain centres, and immeas- 
urably increase the activity of others, 
through the potency of suggestion. 

We have been taught that it is 
possible for a person who has pursued 
a certain course of life for a long period 
of time to be suddenly transformed, 
and from thenceforth live absolutely 
and wholly the opposite kind of life; 
and yet this idea belongs more to fiction 
than to fact, more to religious teaching 

66 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

than to religious experience. Character 
is a thing of slow growth, as are most 
things of great worth. There is no 
question that a man who has lived a 
vicious or criminal life, may, by sound 
conversion, be transformed so that his 
face is set in an entirely new direction, 
so that he henceforth espouses a new 
set of ideals and purposes, so that he 
' becomes a new creature ; " and yet 
the becoming a new creature is a slow 
process. John B. Gough, the drunkard, 
was saved wonderfully by divine power, 
and yet Mr. Gough tells us himself 
that almost to the day of his death he 
fought a constant battle with his appe- 
tite for drink. The actions which have 
worn their paths in the gray matter of 
the brain tend to repeat themselves, 
until the power of their particular 
brain centres is weakened or dimin- 
ished; and in some cases, as in Mr. 
Gough's, seemingly, that power is never 
67 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

entirely overcome in this life. Such is 
the awful power of habit. Gen. Joe 
Wheeler at the Battle of Santiago, as 
the Spaniards were fleeing, called out, 
" Forward, men, the Yankees are run- 
ning ! " In the excitement of the hour he 
had been carried back to the scenes of 
the early days of '60, when he was 
fighting on the Confederate side, and 
the old brain centre, established a 
generation before, became once again 
active. It is the same in the moral life. 
Sudden conversions, where they are 
genuine, mean that the new life has 
been begun, but only begun; and the 
transformation of character is a life- 
long process. That is why we find so 
often that men and women who have 
professed conversion, more or less 
quickly drop back into their old habits 
of life. It is because they are not per- 
sistent and patient enough in forming 
the new brain centres from whence 

68 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

must be permanently expressed the new 
life, that may in very truth be born in 
them, and yet which is soon stifled by 
the power of these habits of the past. 
We ought to have all charity for such 
men and women. We must " forgive 
seventy times seven," and more if 
need be, as we think of the shackles and 
chains which these habits of years' 
standing have fastened upon their 
lives. 

The great educational reformers and 
our leading criminologists are coming 
to see and understand these principles 
as they never did in the past, before 
the newer Psychology threw its light 
on the way in which moral character 
grows and habits are formed. The prin- 
ciple in moral development is exactly 
the same as in mental development. 
We must recognize that it is for us to 
furnish the mental suggestions of those 
virtues or traits of character, which we 

69 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

are desirous of realizing in our lives. 
Right thinking, right desires, right re- 
solves patiently and faithfully persisted 
in, must inevitably strengthen the brain 
centres whence all right action proceeds ; 
and at the same time, simply by being 
let alone, the brain centres producing 
wrong actions will gradually diminish 
in strength. 

The three rules apply here as else- 
where. The first thing necessary is a 
clear conception of what you want to 
accomplish in your life. Do not be 
afraid to face frankly your weaknesses 
just as they exist. Be honest with 
yourself and with God, whether you are 
with your fellow man or not. And when 
you have faced fearlessly your own 
faults and weaknesses, get clearly in 
mind the image of the opposite of the 
things you have found to be hurtful 
in your life. If it is a tendency to hasty 
speech, hold the ideal of self-control 
70 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

and kindness in speech, and think that 
ideal intensely until it lodges itself 
deep in your sub-conscious self. If it 
is a tendency towards insincerity or 
exaggeration, or perhaps dishonesty in 
some of its many forms, then hold the 
opposite ideal. Say to yourself, :< I 
realize the need of speaking the truth 
always and everywhere; I will be 
strictly accurate in my speech; I will 
not exaggerate, I will be absolutely 
honest with myself and others." Day 
by day keep that ideal enshrined in 
your mental life. If it be the tendency 
to any of the grosser sins of the passions 
or appetites, let the method be exactly 
the same. Say to yourself, " I will 
conquer, and the appetite or passion 
that may be strong within can never 
control me, for I am the master of my 
fate." Carry that thought with you 
day and night. Then by a series of 
suggestions adapted to the desired end, 

71 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

by the regular and persistent following 
up of these suggestions, not all at once, 
but gradually — you will establish the 
new brain centres out of which these 
noble activities proceed. And as your 
thought and attention is turned from 
the old habits and practices, the brain 
centres that started those activities 
gradually diminish in strength and 
power. This is inexorable law. This 
is true psychology. This is based upon 
scientific as well as religious experi- 
ence. The hardest part comes at the 
beginning, when we are first trying to 
break old habits and form new ones, 
but faithfulness and patience will win 
the day. There is no virtue that 
cannot be established. There is no 
vice or weakness that cannot be eradi- 
cated through this method. What 
has been accomplished in multitudes 
of lives can be accomplished in our- 
selves, if we will. It all depends upon 

72 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

how dead in earnest we are in this 
matter of building the moral character, 
of living the truly moral life that at 
all times and under all circumstances 
invariably does the right. 

It may be that some will ask, " Are 
you not leaving God out of it ? " By 
no means. These laws of psychology 
are God's laws. The power that we 
use when we employ any of these 
powers of mind, is God's power. God 
is not a Being who dwells afar, whom I 
must beseech and with whom I must 
plead, in order to have Him grant my 
cry for help. The God in whom we 
believe and in whom Jesus trusted, is 
" the God in whom I live and move 
and have my being." All these laws 
of nature and of psychology are truly 
His laws, and the power that you and 
I use as we conform to these laws, is 
all God-given power; and so once 
again we discover that it is God working 

73 



ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER 

in us, as we work out, in obedience 
to His great laws. 

Only let us remember that we are 
not in this earthly life, primarily to gain 
riches; we are not here first of all to 
be happy; we are not here to seek 
pleasure only ; we are not here to attain 
the applause of the world; if we can 
get these things legitimately, let us get 
them by all means, but let us never 
forget that they are always the inci- 
dentals of our life here, never the end 
of life. The great end and purpose of 
our being here at all, is that we shall 
grow a souk that we shall build a 
character, that we shall fashion, under 
God, the manhood and womanhood 
that shall outlast all influences of Time. 



74 



THE CONQUEST OF FEAR 
AND WORRY 



THE CONQUEST OF FEAR 
AND WORRY 




|NE of the most practical re- 
sults of the Newer Thinking, 
has been to point out the in- 
jurious effect of all Fear and 
its kindred thoughts ; and also to prove 
the possibility of overcoming such dis- 
cordant mental states. We all come into 
life bringing with us a heritage of fears. 
According to the biologists, fear is 
one of the primary forms of the emo- 
tional life, and is awakened along with 
the element of surprise. Fear is prac- 
tically universal in the animal realm, 
where apparently there are no forms 
so low as not to exhibit at times this 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

instinctive tendency. Darwin says that 
even the earthworm will become fright- 
ened and turn and dart into its hole, 
when alarmed, as readily as the rabbit. 
Fear exists thus universally among 
animals because of the working of the 
law of natural selection, which pre- 
scribes that any organism may survive 
in just the degree that it adjusts itself to 
its environment. Without the element 
of fear no animal organism would be 
able to long survive a hostile environ- 
ment. But while fear seems to be a 
device of Nature for the protection 
of the animal organism, this is only 
half the story, for even among the 
lower animals fear creates tremendous 
disadvantages. There are many times 
when the animal falls short of accom- 
plishing its purpose and fails to survive 
solely because of its fear. Still, we 
are bound to admit thai within certain 
limits, in the lower animal realm, the 
4 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

element of fear has played and does 
play an eminently useful part. 

In the human family from the time 
of birth, the ehild exhibits this same 
instinctive fear. It is what Mosso 
calls " hereditary fear." Every mother 
knows the instinctive fear of falling, 
shown by the babe on her knee. " The 
fear of children for dogs and cats, 
before they have learned why they are 
to be feared, is a consequence of hered- 
ity?" the inheritance, according to 
Mosso, of man's sub-human ancestry. 
We are all born to an heritage of fears, 
many of which we outgrow, while by 
others we are held in life-long bondage. 

President Stanley Hall in his " Study 
of Fears" remarks: "There is no 
one without fear, and the psychologists 
who calculate the percentage of fearless 
people are thinking of shock or panic 
or acute fright, but not of the subtler 
forms, like fear of God, of dishonour, 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

or failure of their highest purpose. Not 
only does every one fear, but all should 
fear." And yet I submit that " fear 
of God, dishonour, etc.," as President 
Hall uses the word, is something vastly 
different from what we ordinarily mean 
by fear, and because of the confusion 
in thought should not be used in such 
connections. It is always " Ignorance 
that is the mother of fear," and the 
education of the child consists in freeing 
it from its fears, at every stage of its 
progress. " Ye shall know the truth," 
said Jesus, " and the truth shall make 
you free." Every advance into knowl- 
edge but narrows the field in which 
fear operates. This has been the his- 
tory of the race, as it is of the individual. 
Freedom from fear does not neces- 
sarily mean blind recklessness. It may 
be the ripe result of that wisdom which, 
while reverent and cautious, has never- 
theless banished all fear thoughts for 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

ever. It is to this ultimate goal that 
humanity is surely tending in its higher 
development. The man who does 
right simply because he is afraid to do 
wrong is still in his moral childhood; 
while the man who is " religious " 
because he fears God, is still in the 
Kindergarten of religious experience. 
It is self-evident that God intends us, 
as spiritual beings, to gradually over- 
come and forever conquer this heritage 
from the past, this vestige of our animal- 
hood, just as we have overcome so many 
other inherited tendencies. The spirit- 
ual man must outgrow his animal na- 
ture, and fear, as we use the word, in 
any of its many forms, belongs to the 
ignorance of the past. When we know 
the truth, we no longer fear, and where 
we do not yet know, we have learned 
to trust and not be afraid. The process 
of our inner development into the 
divine consciousness, in other words, 
7 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

our salvation, means nothing less than 
the slow but sure conquering of all 
fear. 

There has been no slave holder in 
all the world so tyrannical as fear; 
monarch and peasant, learned and 
unlearned, old and young, have all, 
to a greater or less degree, yielded obedi- 
ence temporarily to this most harsh 
of all cruel taskmasters. Fear has 
darkened the sky, has warped the 
mind, has weakened the will, has 
poisoned the heart, has blinded the 
eves to the real God, has destroved 
happiness both for oneself and others, 
has quenched the fever of ambition 
and hope, — in short, has done more 
to defeat the real purpose of life and 
dim its glory, than all the other forces 
which have cursed mankind and kept 
the human race in bondage. But the 
light has begun to break and man is 
fast learning that there is nothing to 
8 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

fear, but his own fear. The only devil 
is the devil of Fear, and every man's 
personal devil is his leading Fear, to 
which he bows in abject slavery./ 

The fears that beset human lives 
are legion, and no attempt can be made 
to enumerate them. Let me only sug- 
gest some of their most common forms. 
Most of the fears of childhood are out- 
grown, and yet many of them persist 
into later life. The child's fear of the 
dark is one of the commonest. One of 
our leading novelists describes in most 
vivid language, the actual agony he 
suffered as a child from the terror that 
filled his mind at night, when the light 
was put out. One of the first conscious 
fears which I recall, was the fear of 
the cemetery. I cannot account for 
its origin; it may have been hereditary, 
it may have been due to some story 
heard, or some book read, as a child. 
After becoming a high-school student 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

I remember more than once, in the 
effort to conquer this fear, going out of 
my way in the evening for the sake of 
walking around a certain cemetery; 
and yet every time it was with a clinch- 
ing of fists and gritting of teeth; such 
potent suggestions are these fears of 
early life! The fear of thunder storms, 
of fire, of elevators, of tunnels, of going 
on the water, of high places, etc. — 
who has not experienced some such 
fear, in the past if not in the present ? 
Such fears are most real to the one who 
experiences them, and not by ridicule 
or punishment can they be overcome, 
but rather by patient, sympathetic 
re-education of the victim. 

The business or professional man 
confronts the fear of failure. Presi- 
dent Hall would say that such a fear, 
up to a certain point, is an incentive 
to success; a man who fears failure 
is the one who does his best to avoid 
10 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

failure. And yet this is to take a 
negative attitude toward success. A 
man who fears failure in the sense 
that the possibility of failure is con- 
stantly before his mind, is, in the 
nature of things, prevented from doing 
his best work, and hindered in ac- 
complishing the largest success. He 
needs to be left free to achieve the best 
results. Much of his energy, physical 
and mental, is necessarily consumed in 
fear of failure. The artist does his 
best work when he is absolutely free 
from self -consciousness ; in his truly 
creative moments, he simply puts brush 
to canvas without any fear of failure 
or distrust of his powers. Then only 
is he working in the " inspired mood." 
The public singer never accomplishes 
her greatest triumph, unless there is 
the absence of self -consciousness. If 
she goes before the audience with the 
feeling of fear, or the dread of failure, 
11 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

inevitably the strength needed for suc- 
cess has vanished. Multitudes of 
people are deprived of their real power 
in business, or are handicapped in 
the race for professional success, simply 
by this fear of possible failure which 
haunts them like a hideous spectre. 

Then there is the fear that comes 
to so many in middle life, of poverty 
and financial dependency. How many 
lives are harassed and anxious over- 
much, because of this too-common fear. 
I do not agree with those writers who 
would have us believe that poverty 
is no evil, though I am perfectly con- 
scious that there are many worse evils 
in life. A man may be poor in this 
world's goods and yet dwell in the 
midst of happiness, within and with- 
out. Luxuries, mere things, are not 
necessary to happiness, for a man's 
life consists not in the number of things 
he possesses. But the poverty that 

12 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

leads to dependency on others, that 
means helplessness in old age, that 
perhaps points unmistakably towards 
the poor house, — that is a different 
thing. There should be in every life 
such a healthy forethought as shall 
lead to prudence, industry and thrift. 
But having done our honest work, 
making such wise provision as is pos- 
sible for old age or sickness or for those 
dependent upon us, let us in faith leave 
the future to God, before whom a 
sparrow's fall is not without regard. 
The anxious fear for the needs of to- 
morrow only takes the sunshine out of 
to-day, and embitters the present 
hour. 

Another common form of fear, is 
that of sickness or disease. How many 
there are who say : " I have had this fear 
hanging over me ever since I was a 
child ; my father died of such a disease 
and my grandfather before him, and 
13 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

I do not know any day but that I may 
be likewise afflicted." Here, as in the 
case of one's failure in business, it is 
the fear that creates the predisposition 
towards the thing feared. There may 
be some slight palpitation of the heart, 
and one begins to fear serious trouble. 
The mental attitude both aggravates 
the actual condition and is the cause 
of new symptoms. 

The fear of disease is the thing that 
invites disease just as the fear of failure 
in business is the thing that invites 
failure, because it handicaps and unfits 
one, physically and mentally, for over- 
coming the conditions that lead to 
failure or disease. As a result many 
of us go through life, if not actually 
diseased, in the constant fear that this 
form of sickness or that will come 
upon us, until we become a constant 
burden to ourselves and others. As 
an old Oriental proverb puts it: " The 

14 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

plague killed five thousand people. 
Fifty thousand died of fear." 

Then there is the fear of old age. 
None of us want to grow old. We do 
not like to see the gray hairs. We do 
not enjoy the consciousness that we 
cannot do the day's work with the 
same energy and facility as formerly. 
We do not like to count the years off, 
as the birthdays come around, and 
realize that we are beginning the de- 
scent of life's hillside, that we have 
passed life's meridian, and that now 
the work must be done, the burdens 
borne and the problems solved by the 
younger men and women, while we 
step aside and are forgotten. No, we 
do not want to grow old. But we for- 
get that it is the great onward move- 
ment of Life that carries every one at 
length into the period of old age. To 
fear old age is as foolish as it would be 
for the child to fear the time when it 

15 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

must leave the toys of the nursery for 
the lessons of the schoolroom. There 
is nothing disgraceful about it. It 
ought to be the glorious harvest time 
for every man and woman, if the heart 
keeps young and the mind retains its 
grasp upon the realities. It is the time 
for retrospection, and also for hopeful 
forward looking. There is really noth- 
ing in the period of old age that should 
cause dread. And yet we allow this 
fear to haunt us and cloud our sky. 

There is also the fear which is even 
more universal — the fear of death. 
There are many elements that enter 
into the fear of death. This is not the 
place to consider them all, only let me 
say that I think the great surprise to 
every man and woman who passes 
through the experience of death, will 
be to find how absolutely groundless 
all their fears have been. Professor 
Osier, in his Harvard lecture upon 
16 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

Immortality, tells of his experience at 
five hundred deathbeds. He says that 
of this number, only ninety experienced 
any unpleasant sensations or suffered 
any pain during the hour of death. 
He goes on to generalize from his ex- 
perience and that of all physicians, and 
concludes that death, in the great ma- 
jority of instances, is nothing more 
than falling asleep. We are not afraid 
to pass from the state of consciousness 
to the state of slumber, and that is all 
that death means, for by far the great 
majority. There are cases where suf- 
fering continues to the moment of 
death, but it should be remembered 
that such suffering belongs to the pre- 
vious illness and is not a part of death. 
Death only comes as a release from 
pain. The hard part is not for the 
one who dies, but for those who re- 
main. 

Let us go a step further and think 
17 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

of the experience of death as we think 
of old age, as belonging to the divine 
plan, just as much a part of God's 
gracious purpose for us as is life itself; 
then death is never the end of life but 
only one of the incidents in life; and 
the Life moves on surely and steadily 
through all the shadows that cluster 
about the earthward side of death, 
into a larger and better existence. If 
we could rest down in confidence in 
this divine plan for life, — a plan that 
includes death, only as one of its many 
experiences, I am sure we would find 
ourselves relieved of much of the fear 
and anxiety that haunt this final 
experience of earthly life for so many. 
Finally there is the religious fear, 
which has wrought incalculable injury 
in the history of mankind. There have 
been periods in the past when fear in 
religion, has been more monstrous and 
terrible than in any other realm of 
18 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

human thought. There have been 
political tyrants, who have employed 
the weapon of fear and caused men to 
crouch abjectly at their feet. So there 
have been religious tyrants who have 
wielded the same weapon and made 
mental and moral cowards of their fol- 
lowers. If you are familiar with Church 
History you know how tremendous 
the wrongs done humanity in the name 
of Religion, through the power of 
fear as wielded by both Protestants 
and Catholics. Men in whose minds 
God has kindled a great light, have 
been afraid to do their own thinking 
for fear that the Church would pro- 
nounce its anathema against them. 
Great minds like that of Copernicus, 
and great moral leaders like Savona- 
rola, have stultified themselves and 
denied their honest thought, because 
the Church threatened ex-communica- 
tion. We cannot denounce too strongly 

19 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

these dark chapters in the history of 
religion, when fear has dictated and 
controlled the thoughts and actions 
of men. Fear is not an essential part 
of true religion, and when the Church, 
through blindness or selfishness, has 
employed fear as a weapon or appealed 
to fear as a motive, it has always had to 
pay the penalty sooner or later, in 
the loss of faith and respect on the part 
of those it has attempted to coerce. 

I am glad that we are fast coming 
to the time when men can no longer be 
frightened into obeying God, when men 
are no longer afraid not to go to church, 
when men no longer fear that if they 
do not accept some particular creed or 
the dogmas of some special institution 
they will be sent to hell. God has no 
desire to coerce any single individual. 
God's great work in the world is edu- 
cative and redemptive, and He is 
constantly seeking to bring men to the 
20 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

point where they will voluntarily and 
cheerfully accept His laws and follow 
His guidance, not through fear or 
cowardice, but because they have come 
to understand that His way is best and 
that life in Him leads to the highest. 
I know that the old Hebrew writer 
says, " The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom," but I cannot 
forget that the God in whom he be- 
lieved was a tyrannical character who 
ruled in anger and was desirous of 
taking vengeance upon His disobedient 
children. When I compare the charac- 
ter of the God he worshipped, with 
the God of the New Testament, I am 
content to let his God go, and accept 
the God whom Jesus revealed. For 
Jesus said " God is Love," and His 
summation of tfre law is to love God 
and man. If I love my father I do not 
fear him, and if I fear him I do not 
love him; and when I read these 

21 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

words of John: " Perfect love casteth 
out fear/' and " He that dvvelleth in 
love, dwelleth in God, and God dwell- 
eth in him," and " He that dwelleth 
in fear is not yet perfected in love," I 
begin to understand the great ideal 
which Jesus set forth, that man through 
love should absolutely conquer every 
tendency of fear in his nature, — until 
at last, " perfected in love " he learns 
to live victoriously, the life of perfect 
confidence and trust in his Heavenly 
Father. 

The worst thing about fear is that it 
constitutes nothing less than atheism. 
If religion involves belief in the God 
of love whom Jesus revealed, and con- 
sists in entering into vital relations with 
that God as One who is present here 
and now, then to fear such a God is 
an actual form of unfaith; it is sham 
and hollow mockery. So I repudiate 
forever every statement of religious 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

doctrine, every form of religious be- 
lief, every interpretation of the Bible, 
which would in any sense lead men 
to do other than trust and love God 
with a perfect confidence, in which 
is no room for fear. 

The element of fear in human life is 
parent to all such mentally debilitating 
moods as apprehension, timidity, cow- 
ardice, depression, superstition, self -de- 
preciation, doubting and worry. This 
last is probably the most prevalent form 
of the Fear thought, and the icorry 
habit has become the great American 
vice. We must all plead guilty to this 
vice. We are all familiar with it. We 
can worry about anything, and I sup- 
pose that sometime or other we have all 
worried about pretty much everything. 
As the chief American vice, it is due 
in large part to the strenuous condi- 
tions under which we have been living 
for the last generation or two. It lies 

23 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

back of what is called the great dis- 
ease of modern times — nervousness 
or nervous prostration, for which neu- 
rasthenia is the technical term. We 
are told of cerebral neurasthenia, spinal 
neurasthenia, visceral neurasthenia, and 
cardiac neurasthenia, but wherever lo- 
cated, it means nerve fatigue, or nerve 
exhaustion. The number of nerve 
specialists is steadily increasing, and 
so prevalent is the disorder, that many 
a doctor when the patient comes to 
him for the first time, immediately asks 
the question, " What is on your mind, 
what are you worrying about ? " The 
woman who said that she spent half of 
her time doing things, and the other 
half worrying about what she had done, 
represents a great multitude; and yet 
on reflection, what is more foolish than 
worry ? As a Chinese proverb states 
it: " The legs of the stork are long, the 
legs of the duck are short; you cannot 
24 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

make the legs of the stork short, neither 
can you make the legs of the duck long. 
Why worry ? " 

There are two things that it is ab- 
solutely useless for us to worry about. 
First, the things that we cannot help. 
How utterly useless is worry when we 
cannot help the thing. And second, 
the thing that we can help. Worry 
only hinders us from helping. If you 
cannot help conditions, worry only 
makes it impossible for you to bear 
them; if you can help them, then by 
all means change the conditions and 
so banish the cause of your worry. We 
all go through the days carrying the 
worry, which in the beginning was a 
very small thing causing personal anx- 
iety or solicitude; but it has steadily 
grown, until the whole mind is dark- 
ened and the heart embittered; slowly 
but surely it becomes contagious, until 
it has darkened the lives of others in 

25 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

the same household; and by and by 
we awake to the realization that we 
are confirmed in the worry habit, of 
all habits the most injurious to human 
happiness and the highest development 
of character. 

These worries of life may proceed 
from various primary conditions. There 
are worries that may be traced back to 
a state of excessive self -consciousness. 
We are hyper-sensitive about ourselves ; 
whatever is said or not said, whatever 
is done or not done, we always con- 
strue as having reference to ourselves ; 
with the result that we are always 
imagining that we have been in- 
sulted or slighted or criticized by 
people who never dreamed of hurt- 
ing us. Without realizing it such 
people actually regard themselves as 
the centre of the world. If people 
are talking, they must be talking about 
them; if others are passing criticism, 
26 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

it must be a criticism upon them; if 
people do not see them, depend upon 
it, it was meant as an intentional snub. 
This conceit does us no harm when 
we remember that there are as many 
centres of the universe as there are 
people and other thinking animals. 
When we forget this, our troubles be- 
gin. If such is our tendency we need 
to modify our over-sensitive self -con- 
sciousness by externalizing our thoughts 
and broadening our interests; in other 
words we need to practise the art of 
forgetting self. 

Another cause from whence worry 
proceeds, is the tendency to obsession, 
which psychology defines as an unduly 
insistent and compulsive thought, habit 
of mind, or tendency to action. Most 
children are obsessed by various ideas. 
It is shown in the boy who has to kick 
every post he passes, or who must step 
across every other board in the walk, 

27 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

or who is impelled to count the win- 
dows as he goes along the block, or who 
cannot help biting his nails. He is 
the legitimate father of the man who 
cannot eat an egg if it is boiled less or 
more than four minutes, or the man 
who cannot work unless there is ab- 
solute silence in the room, or the person 
who can never sleep if the steam pipes 
are cracking, etc., ad infinitum. These 
are simple illustrations of obsession 
where the mind is possessed by a cer- 
tain idea and becomes its slave. Such 
impelling ideas are the prolific source 
of petty worries and anxieties of all 
kinds. 

The natural history of every worry 
may be illustrated by the common 
experience of having a friend start on 
a journey. There steals into the mind 
a thought of uncertainty whether he 
will reach his destination in safety. 
Right here in this initial doubt is the 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

parting of the ways. The first dis- 
cordant thought, no matter how small, 
should be instantly dropped out of the 
mind as unreservedly as a stone is 
dropped from the hand. Unless this is 
done, the worry increases; thoughts 
of accidents fill the mind, a hundred 
possible but altogether improbable dan- 
gers seem to be threatening your friend, 
until at last the first feeling of uncer- 
tainty has become an anxious, fore- 
boding mental mood, destroying peace, 
preventing sleep, and poisoning all of 
life. This is typical of all worries. 
They begin in the little doubt or uncer- 
tainty, they end in poison for the body, 
depression for the mind, and bitterness 
for the heart, not to mention the gloom 
and unhappiness for the home. 

If we could but realize that not one 
in a hundred of the things about which 
we worry ever take place; if we could 
only sit down calmly and with common 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

sense, analyze our worries, and get back 
to the basis of fact that lies beneath the 
worry, we should smile at our folly and 
be ashamed of our weakness in allow- 
ing such trivial things, usually of our 
own imagining, to create such havoc 
in our lives. In Frances Hodgson 
Burnett's beautiful story, " The Dawn 
of a To-morrow," we listen to the little 
old variety actress talking to the blase 
Londoner, who has worried himself 
into thinking that life is no longer 
worth living. She says to him, " The 
trouble with you, my friend, is that 
you think things is worse than they are." 
Is not that the chief trouble with us 
all ? We are all prone to " think things 
is worse than they are," and so we 
become addicted to the worry habit, 
forgetting that the worry is in the mind 
and therefore can be controlled, whether 
we can control the object of our worry 
or not. 

30 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

Booker T. Washington, in his book, 
'' Up from Slavery," in commenting 
upon his own experience, uses these 
sensible words, " I think I am learning 
more and more each year, that all 
worry consumes, and to no purpose, 
just so much physical and mental 
strength that otherwise might be given 
to effective work." It is not hard work 
that kills. Anybody can stand hard 
work if the mind is peaceful and har- 
monious and free from anxiety; it 
is the work into which the anxious 
element enters, the work which is ac- 
companied by worry, the work done 
in the atmosphere of discordant think- 
ing, that leads to the almost inevitable 
breakdown, physical or mental. 

What practical suggestions can be 
made as to the method of overcoming 
this great enemy of human happiness, 
— fear and its offspring, worry ? First 
we must recognize frankly that fear and 

31 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

worry are sins. We need to look them 
straight in the face, and give them 
their real name — sin, just as truly 
sin as getting drunk or robbing a bank. 
Did you ever stop to think that the 
command of Jesus, not to worry, is 
as explicit and insistent a command 
as any He ever gave ? If the pulpit 
had been preaching against the sin 
of worry, as vigorously as it has been 
thundering against the sins of unbelief, 
there would be more vital faith in the 
world to-day. Worry is sin. There 
is no place in the truly religious life 
for this worry habit, which takes happi- 
ness out of the heart and sweetness out 
of the home; which so depresses the 
mind and poisons the body. When we 
allow ourselves to treat worry or fear 
lightly, as if they were things we would 
be better off without, perhaps, but 
which we need not make any serious 
effort to overcome, we have not yet 

32 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

awakened to their fatal influence upon 
human character and spiritual devel- 
opment. 

Then, make up your mind that you 
can be free from the bondage of worry. 
I am satisfied that a great many of us 
are living in the atmosphere of anxiety 
and worry because we have no very 
strong inclination to get out of it. This 
may not be a kind thing to say, but I 
have known a good many troubled 
people, who really knew how ground- 
less were their worries, how injurious 
to themselves, and how much unhappi- 
ness they brought to others, who still 
persisted in their worrying, as if they 
could not give it up, and kept " rolling 
it like a sweet morsel under the tongue." 
People say, " I cannot help worrying," 
— well, if you cannot help it, nobody 
can help it for you; but any one can 
help it if he will. 

O for some power to rouse the 

33 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

mind, the will and the conscience of 
those who say, " I would like to stop, 
but I can't ; you know it is my temper- 
ament!" It is within the range of pos- 
sibilities for any one to break the 
shackles of worry if he will. We have 
not regarded it as anything very dan- 
gerous, but merely as something rather 
annoying. Learn to look upon it as a 
vice, to be put out of your life at any 
cost; and then make up your mind 
that you yourself are to blame, that 
no conditions or circumstances can 
make you worry unless you want to. 
Remember, the two things you need 
never worry about are the thing you 
cannot help and the thing you can 
help, and these cover just about the 
whole range of human experience. 
When one looks at it in this light and 
realizes the uselessness, the folly and 
the sin of worrying about anything 
whatever, only then has he assumed the 
34 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

mental attitude where worry can no 
longer tyrannize over him. 

If you are really in earnest in 
freeing your life from the useless wor- 
ries, sit down and calmly analyze your 
worry, get down to its root cause, find 
out just what lies beneath this mood 
that has grown to be habitual; and 
when you discover the root cause, push 
everything else aside, except the one 
thing from whence your worry pro- 
ceeds. Then say to yourself: " I have 
analyzed my worry, I know what its 
source really is, now can I change this 
thing ? If I cannot, then it is my duty 
to make friends with it, to fall in line 
with the inevitable, and to live as hero- 
ically, as patiently and trustfully as I 
can in its presence; if I can change it, 
then by the help of the God who dwells 
within me, I will change it." When 
you take your worries one by one and 
treat them in this systematic fashion, 

35 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

you will find yourself making real 
headway, — but just to bemoan the fact 
that you are anxious and worried, 
without stopping to analyze your mental 
condition, will accomplish nothing. 

Our thinking must be turned into 
other channels than those which we 
know will lead to the worrisome 
thoughts. When trying to go to sleep, 
if you think of the clanging of the street 
cars, it gets on your nerves, and by and 
by it is impossible to sleep because of 
the noise. What do you do ? You be- 
gin to think of something else, and 
before you know it you have forgotten 
all about the noise. You have sub- 
stituted another thought for that which 
a moment ago seemed the only thought 
possible to your consciousness. In just 
the same way treat these worrisome 
thoughts. Stop thinking them. If 
you cannot do it by sheer will power, 
then substitute some new line of 
36 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

thought. Therein lies the value of the 
fad, for the busy, overworked man or 
woman, who finds that things are get- 
ting on the nerves, and who is con- 
scious that the tendency to worry is 
growing. Let it be the long daily walk, 
or golf, or gymnasium exercise, or rid- 
ing; some special study of flowers 
or trees or mushrooms, or history; or 
if the taste inclines, tools and the work- 
bench. It makes little difference what 
it is, only let there be something outside 
the routine of your life, to which you 
give your thought and energy, at least 
for a little while every day or every 
week. Most of the inmates of our 
asylums are people whose lives were 
lived in narrow restricted grooves. 
What most of us need, especially 
in this busy age, is greater va- 
riety, some time when we can get 
out of the rut, where we can think 
thoughts and do things outside the 
37 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

range of the ordinary thoughts and 
duties of life. 

The last suggestion is in the words 
of none other than Professor William 
James, who says in his " Talks to 
Teachers," " The great sovereign cure 
for worry is religious faith. The turbu- 
lent billows of the fretful surface leave 
the deep parts of the ocean undisturbed, 
and to him who has a hold of vaster 
and more permanent realities, the hourly 
vicissitudes of his personal destiny, 
seem relatively insignificant things." 
Have you ever had such an experience ? 
It may have come in some time of 
business calamity, when riches were 
swept away ; it may have been in great 
sorrow when all that seemed worth 
while in life was taken from you; it 
may have been some deep experience 
in the life of another near and dear 
to you, to whom your heart has gone 
out in truest sympathy; but in such a 

38 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

revealing hour of life, have you never 
felt the paltriness and insignificance 
of all these things about which we grow 
so anxious and fearful ? No man ever 
ascends to the heights or goes down 
to the depths without realizing that, 
after all, there is nothing much that 
really counts, but God and his own 
soul. In the final analysis it will be 
found that all fear comes from belief 
in separation from God. But actual 
separation from God is impossible, be- 
cause we live, move and have our being 
in Him. Hence the groundlessness of 
all fears, to the one of religious faith. 
I am not arguing for any particular 
creed, I am not speaking of any special 
system of religious doctrines, but I do 
affirm on the testimony of multitudes, 
that the greatest aid in curing the 
worry and anxiety of human life is a 
deep and abiding religious faith; a 
faith that enables one to know his one- 

39 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

ness with God, that helps one realize 
the infinite goodness of the Eternal 
Father, that makes it possible for one 
to begin each day in the glad confidence 
that nothing can come to really hurt 
one, that there is nothing to be feared 
except one's own fear, that a man can 
face each duty and enter upon every 
task in the perfect confidence that as 
he does his best, he can safely leave 
the rest with God. A man can live 
here and now, so humbly, so trust- 
fully, so earnestly and so lovingly, that 
whether the day is dark overhead or 
the path is rough to his feet, he is un- 
disturbed and unaffrighted, for he bears 
within himself the deep and abiding 
faith of one who has realized the pres- 
ence of God. 

I do not refer to an experience pos- 
sible only to the few, but to average 
men and women whom it has been 
my privilege to know; whose lives, 

40 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

lived amidst the trials and disappoint- 
ments of our common experience, are 
nevertheless serene and calm, whose 
very faces bespeak the inner peace that 
passeth all understanding, for they 
have gained the victory over fear 
and worry. I would rather reach that 
height of spiritual development, and 
live the confident, trustful life of faith 
in the unseen, than possess the wealth 
of a Crcesus. It may be yours and 
mine. The religious faith that does 
not steadily lead toward that goal, is 
a spurious article. 

It makes no difference how long 
we have been members of the church, 
nor how much we know of the Bible, 
nor what creed we profess, if we have 
not learned how to trust God and not 
be afraid, how to live through our days, 
taking no anxious thought for the mor- 
row, if we are still troubled about meat 
and drink and raiment, if we are still 

41 



CONQUEST OF FEAR AND WORRY 

worried about tilings or people, if we 
dread the future of possible sickness 
or old age, if we cannot see beyond 
the shadows of death, " the light that 
never was on land or sea " — then, 
whatever faith may be to others, it 
is quite meaningless for us; for the 
faith that saves is the faith that de- 
velops in us the consciousness of God, 
and when we know that, we know 
peace. 



42 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PKAYER 




THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

OTHING more clearly reveals 
the long journey man has come 
in his religious development, 
than the history of Prayer. 
Men have always prayed. However we 
may be distracted by the superficial- 
ities of life, however difficult we may 
find it to commune in any constant way 
with the Infinite, nevertheless great mo- 
ments come in all our lives, when pro- 
founder thoughts are stirred and the 
heart's frozen depths are melted, and 
we must pray. It may be some expe- 
rience of great joy, when the heart goes 
out naturally in thanksgiving; it may 
be a time of great sorrow, when one 
45 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

confronts bitter loneliness in the sepa- 
ration from all that is dearest in life, 
and the heart instinctively reaches out 
after God ; or, sudden death may come 
upon one whose life has been careless 
or indifferent, and in the quick awak- 
ening to the consciousness that he must 
cross the boundary line between the 
present and the unknown future, a 
man will commit his soul to God. 

In the early childhood of the race 
prayer was a simple and natural thing. 
The savage beat his fetish when it was 
not complacent enough. Rites and 
ceremonies were followed; mysterious 
syllables, when uttered by the voice 
in a certain way were supposed to have 
an irresistible effect; gestures, menac- 
ing or wheedling, were also employed. 
The chief object of prayer, in its earliest 
forms, was to move the god to carry 
out man's wishes, and bend his will 
to that of man. Primitive man be- 

46 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

lieved himself to be surrounded by un- 
seen gods, who were to him very much 
like his neighbours, to be dealt with 
by the self -same means employed in 
dealing with his fellows. Ruse, vio- 
lence, seduction, bribes or threats were 
common methods by which the god 
was approached. " It was human 
selfishness addressing itself naively to 
the selfishness of the gods." The god 
who failed to grant the heart's desire, 
deserved to be chastised for his ob- 
stinacy. 

Sacrifice, at first, was merely a form 
of prayer. The gods to whom sacri- 
fices were made stood higher and were 
regarded as possessing greater power 
than man, but as yet there was no 
Supreme God. These gods were jeal- 
ous of one another, some having the 
power to thwart the will and purpose 
of others, and man approached his 
god as he would his superior anywhere, 
47 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

— with something in his hands. To 
secure his favour or appease his wrath, 
he brought the offerings he believed 
to be most acceptable. Like mortals, 
the gods had need of nourishment, 
and so were brought the finest fruits 
of the human repast; libations, pres- 
ents of honey, and fine flour, the first- 
lings of the flock, etc. How hard it 
has been for man to believe in the good- 
ness of his gods! He saw their anger 
expressed in the evils that befell him. 
Was a god supposed to have been of- 
fended ? Men trembled for years be- 
neath the strokes of his wrath; they 
offered expiatory sacrifices, invented 
penances, humiliations, tortures, with- 
out ever being sure that the divine 
vengeance was appeased. 

As men began to perceive the idea 
of the unity of God, and polytheism 
gradually gave place to monotheism, 
still there was not much essential 

48 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

change in prayer. Until the last four 
hundred years in the scientific mind, 
and until at least the last one hundred 
years in the popular mind, the Universe 
was a very small affair. It was no 
larger than our solar system as we 
know it. It consisted of the earth with 
its satellite, the moon, and just a little 
way beyond was the blue vault, with 
its twinkling stars. Just above the 
sky God was seated upon a throne, 
surrounded by His court and attended 
by angels, waiting to do His bidding. 
The average mind regarded prayer 
as the means by which this God, sitting 
yonder on His throne outside of this 
little Universe which He had made 
much as the mechanic makes his ma- 
chine, might be approached and His 
will won over to harmony with the 
will of the one who prayed. 

Within our own generation, men have 
practically held the same idea of prayer. 

49 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

I can remember in my boyhood when 
people came together in time of drought 
to pray for rain. Many will recall, 
in times of epidemics, how Christians 
would assemble for special services of 
fasting and prayer, in order that the 
plague might be averted ; — the under- 
lying thought being, that God might 
send the rain if He chose; that He had 
sent sickness, and therefore might abate 
its scourge; that if men only prayed 
persistently enough, God might be 
induced to change His will, and arbi- 
trarily grant their petition from His 
distant throne. 

I think you will admit that while 
many people have been gradually 
thinking their way out of the older con- 
ceptions of man's relation to. God and 
of the meaning of prayer, nevertheless, 
until quite recently the popular mind 
has held ideas which, in their essence, 
are akin to the notions of the primi- 

50 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

tive savage, viz. : that God was a being 
to be approached in a certain way, ac- 
cording to certain prescribed rules, 
and that if one only prayed earnestly 
and persistently enough, God might 
possibly be induced to hear the appeal 
and grant the boon desired. 

Within the last half century, many 
new difficulties have presented them- 
selves to this conception of prayer. 
In the first place, we are living in a new 
Universe, unknown to our fathers. 
The Copernican System of Astronomy 
has displaced the old Ptolemaic System, 
and we now know that our solar sys- 
tem is only one of millions. When 
Kepler announced his laws of planetary 
motion, when Newton discovered the 
law of gravitation, and fifty years ago, 
when Darwin gave to the world " The 
Origin of Species " and " The Descent 
of Man," and the law of Evolution be- 
came the key to the study of the 

51 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

sciences, including man and his his- 
tory upon the earth, multitudes of 
people felt as if God were being shut 
out of the universe and His place taken 
by impersonal law. The old notion 
of God has been unquestionably de- 
throned, and yet, as Professor Knox of 
Union Theological Seminary recently 
stated, there is no field of thought that 
has profited more by the great work 
of Charles Darwin than the field of 
religion. 

The leading thinkers in all parts of 
the civilized world have abandoned 
entirely the mechanical notion of the 
universe : that God is a great Personage 
who sits outside of and apart from the 
universe, governing the machine which 
he has made from outside. We no 
longer think of God as occasionally 
expressing His will or manifesting His 
power in such a mechanical universe 
— we cannot believe that if somebody 

52 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

prays, or because of His own arbitrary 
will or caprice, He changes His pur- 
pose and interferes with the workings 
of things on the earth. We know that 
there is no tiniest corner in any part 
of this universe where law does not 
control. The scientists have proven 
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that 
the law of cause and effect is, from 
centre to circumference, the law of the 
universe. 

Let us keep clearly in mind the newer 
thought of God, as being in the uni- 
verse, not outside; of the universe, as 
being a great living organism, whose 
living soul is God. Then what we 
call the "Reign of Law" — this 
changeless order by which things are 
brought to pass — is simply God's 
orderly method of expressing His life 
and of accomplishing His gracious 
purposes. This is the conception which 
we entertain to-day of God's relation 
53 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

to the universe. He is not outside, 
but within. He is the soul, He is the 
mind, He is the heart, He is the will 
of the universe, manifesting Himself 
everywhere, present everywhere; and 
what we call laws — the law of gravi- 
tation, the law of planetary motion, the 
law of evolution — are but the divine 
methods by which the infinite life 
and mind and goodness of God are 
constantly expressing themselves. 

Standing in such a wondrous uni- 
verse, pulsating and thrilling through- 
out with the Infinite Presence, what 
becomes of prayer ? Is it something 
that has been outgrown ? Should it 
rightfully disappear with the disap- 
pearance of the old crude science and 
theology of other days ? In this age of 
modern science, is there any longer a 
place for the exercise of prayer ? These 
are questions that trouble many minds. 

Underlying all its various forms, 

54 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

what is the real essence of prayer ? Let 
me borrow an illustration from Dr. 
Savage. Suppose my earthly father had 
built for me a wonderful house, and 
then hidden himself in some one room of 
the house, inaccessible to me. Suppose 
he had so arranged it that if I fulfill 
certain conditions I might have my 
every desire granted. By pressing 
one electric button, food might be 
furnished me; by pressing another 
button, clothing might be brought; 
touching another button, I would have 
books; another, music would greet 
my ears; whatever I desire I have by 
complying with this pre-established and 
changeless order of things. Do you 
not see that all my desires would be 
granted by my father, just as truly when 
I fulfilled the conditions of pressing 
these buttons, as if he were actually 
visible and with his own hands gave 
me what I wished? We all pray as 

55 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

much as primitive man, though we 
have outgrown his forms. Every man 
prays every day and every hour when 
he is conscious. He can not escape 
praying, if he would; for what is 
prayer but earnest, intense desire ? 

If I wish a thing, I am praying. If 
I aspire toward something higher and 
better, if I reach out my hand to grasp 
what I want, no matter how long my 
search or by what methods, I am pray- 
ing. Anything that I strive to attain, 
I pray for, and consciously or uncon- 
sciously, I pray to God for it; for God 
is the one centre and source of all the 
riches both material and spiritual that 
this universe contains, and I am His 
child. 

Let us keep this clearly in mind; 
the real essence of prayer is true desire. 
Prayer does not consist in the words 
one may use, but rather in the secret 
desire of the heart, with which our 
56 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

words may often be in direct conflict. 
How often it is true of our verbal 
prayers, that we have said words over 
and over again, and yet our prayers 
have apparently yielded us nothing; 
simply because we have not really 
desired the things asked for. The 
thing actually desired is the thing we 
pray for, not the petition that may be 
expressed in words. This is the trouble 
with so much of our public praying; it 
consists in words rather than intense 
inner desire. While there may be a 
place for public prayer, yet I cannot 
but feel that it is a very imperfect form 
of prayer. As a matter of fact, public 
prayers are seldom real prayers. Con- 
sciously, or unconsciously, they are 
usually addressed to the audience rather 
than to God. They consist of rhetoric 
rather than of intense desire or aspira- 
tion. Few men are able to forget the 
audience and surroundings and really 

57 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

commune with God, in public. The 
deepest prayers cannot be put into 
words. True prayer is this intense 
inner desire of the heart, deeper than 
any human speech to express; so 
profound, so vital and so spiritual, that 
it must wing its way silently to the 
Eternal. 

A second thing to be recognized, is 
that the earnest desire, or true prayer, 
must comply with the conditions which 
God has laid down in His pre-estab- 
lished order, and these conditions differ 
on different planes of life. We have 
learned what these conditions are on 
the material plane. If I am an intel- 
ligent farmer and pray for a bountiful 
harvest, I know that my prayer or 
desire for a successful season must be 
coupled with the fulfillment of the 
conditions whereby crops grow success- 
fully. There must be the proper soil, 
the right seed, the skillful care of the 

58 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

tender shoots, the proper amount of 
moisture and sunshine, if my crop is 
to be all I hope. And if I sit back and 
content myself with the mere desire 
or prayer for a harvest without obeying 
God's laws, I know in the nature of 
things, it must be a failure. 

To go back to the illustration of the 
wonderful house built for me: my 
father says, "All things are yours by 
simply touching the right button." It 
is my father who satisfies my desires, 
or answers, my prayers, although I have 
to fulfill the intermediate conditions. 
So with my desires as a farmer: it is 
God who gives the harvest, for He is 
the great source of all life, but I have 
to fulfill the conditions, I must touch 
the right button ; I have to do more than 
earnestly desire I must supplement 
my desire with; active obedience to 
these plain conditions whereby a har- 
vest is brought to perfection. 

59 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

If I am desirous of securing an edu- 
cation, I pray, that is, I have the in- 
tense desire for knowledge; and yet 
this alone will not suffice! There are 
certain conditions in accordance with 
which knowledge is obtained, and only 
as my desire or prayer couples itself 
with these conditions can I ever expect 
to gain knowledge . I must secure books, 
I must attend school. I must read, I 
must study, I must observe, I must 
reflect upon what I learn; and only 
as I fulfill these conditions, is my 
prayer answered. 

A young man asked me recently if I 
thought that prayer would help him 
to be successful in his business life. 
By all means, if his prayer or his earnest 
desire for success leads him to fulfill 
the conditions by which business suc- 
cess is obtained; if, in other words, he 
not only has the desire for success, but 
goes forth each day with the determina- 

60 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

tion to be alert, to be persistent, to be 
conscientious, to be faithful in his 
tasks, to give satisfaction to his em- 
ployers, in short, to obey the laws mak- 
ing for business success. Simply to 
carry about with me the wish for suc- 
cess in business, or to kneel at my bed 
at night and put that wish into words, 
will not make me successful. My desire 
must be projected into the fulfillment 
of the conditions whereby success 
comes. 

We dare not ask God to work a 
miracle, that is, to violate one of the 
general laws by which He rules the 
physical world, but there are cases on 
the physical plane, where the Divine 
Will has not been unalterably ex- 
pressed. The law of death, for ex- 
ample, is not as clear and definite as 
the laws of physics. In any given case, 
no matter what the disease, no physi- 
cian can state positively, " This man 

61 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

is bound to die." While there is life 
there is hope, we say, and up to almost 
the last moment, there is the chance 
that the patient may rally; something 
may happen within or without, that 
will tend to rouse the vital forces, and 
bring recovery. 

Have we a right, then, to pray in the 
case of sickness, and is such prayer ever 
answered ? At this point the new 
psychology has revealed how powerful 
a factor prayer may be in the recovery 
from disease. Professor James, in 
speaking of the value of prayer, uses 
these words: " As regards prayer for 
the sick, if any medical fact can be con- 
sidered to stand firm, it is that under 
certain conditions prayer may con- 
tribute to recovery, and should be 
encouraged as a therapeutic measure." 
Psychology recognizes the unity of 
mind and body, and the mutual action 
and reaction of mind upon body. We 

62 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

have seen how the physical is affected 
by the spiritual. Speaking from the 
scientific standpoint, the modus oper- 
andi of prayer in the case of sick- 
ness is this: Prayer offered by the 
sick person or by his friends tends to 
soothe the mind, dispel fears, encour- 
age confidence and hope, and lifts the 
soul into a higher region than the 
earthly. This renewed mental atmos- 
phere is conducive to recovery, for 
through the nervous system it tends 
to act as a tonic and revitalizing force 
upon the whole physical organism. 
I do not think any intelligent physician 
to-day would object to prayer, if the 
sick man so desired, as an aid to re- 
covery. Religiously explained, answers 
to prayers in times of sickness imply 
no miracle. God violates no one of 
His laws, but rather expresses His 
life-giving power through the psycho- 
logical laws, which we are just begin- 

63 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

ning to perceive, in the wondrous 
power of mind over matter, operating 
in the realm of the sub-conscious. But 
it is God none the less, though psychol- 
ogy explains His workings. Prayer is 
the means by which we are brought 
into such relations with Him that His 
power flows through us. 

In this view of prayer, it is not sup- 
posed that some absentee God, apart 
from and outside of the universe, hears 
the prayer offered by the bedside and 
sends down in some miraculous way 
His divine power. Our view of prayer 
depends on our conception of the rela- 
tion in which we stand to God. Ac- 
cording to the modern conception, the 
God whom prayer reaches, is the God 
within. We are organically related 
to Him, in some such way as thoughts 
exist in the mind. Prayer is not like 
sitting down at a long-distance 'phone 
and calling up a friend, miles away, 

64 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

expressing one's desires, and then wait- 
ing for the answer to be returned. How 
crude are all such notions! But we are 
in Him and He in us; and when we 
realize that in this deeper self, in the 
inner life of every one there dwells the 
Divine life, and that prayer does not 
have to ascend to some distant throne, 
but through one's own mind reaches 
this deeper, this inner, this Divine self, 
this God in man, then prayer becomes 
for us a practical and vital power. 

In this way the difficulties which 
have perplexed so many minds, in regard 
to praying for the sick or afflicted, are 
largely removed. We can understand 
psychologically the operation of the 
power of prayer when we recognize 
that the God who is reached and who 
responds, is the God who dwells in 
every one of us, and who answers oui 
prayers through the laws of psychol- 
ogy, — His prescribed conditions, — 

65 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

whereby we receive blessings in our 
physical bodies. 

On the higher plane of the moral and 
spiritual life, here again the essence 
of prayer is the intense, earnest desire 
coupled with the fulfillment of the con- 
ditions that prevail on this higher plane. 
We have already seen that there are 
fixed conditions which the laws of 
nature determine for us in the realm 
of the material and the physical, and 
no desire or prayer can be granted 
unless it is brought into harmony with 
the workings of these so-called natural 
laws, which are the laws of God. No 
intelligent man would dare ask that 
God should violate His own laws. For 
one to ask that God should change 
these laws for him, for his friends or for 
his community, would simply mean 
asking God to put the whole universe 
out of adjustment, and plunge order 
into chaos. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

Many of the laws which obtain in the 
realm of the moral and spiritual life 
we have already come to understand; 
there are many toward which we are 
still groping our way. The new psy- 
chology has thrown tremendous light 
upon the spiritual laws announced 
by Jesus, by complying with which we 
are able to receive the answer to our 
intense and earnest desires for moral 
and spiritual quickening. Here is one 
who desires to conquer some evil habit. 
He has been taught as a boy to pray 
to God and that God will help him; 
but his thought is of the God who is 
far-distant, who, if He chooses, will 
issue an edict for the power needed 
to be granted him. But he finds it 
hard to believe in such a God, and his 
faith in the power of prayer is well-nigh 
gone. Under the newer view what 
does prayer for such a man mean ? He 
recognizes that God is not without any 

67 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

more than He is within,, that all that 
is necessary for him to do, is to hold in 
his own heart and mind this intense, 
earnest desire to overcome the moral 
weakness; and this earnest desire or 
prayer of his makes itself felt in his 
deeper inmost Self. As we have al- 
ready seen, the sub-conscious mind 
which is nothing less than the power 
of God itself, takes up the thoughts and 
desires we send down to it, and trans- 
lates them into life and character. 

We have had a good deal to say of 
the power of Suggestion, whether com- 
ing from without or in the form of Auto- 
suggestion. I wonder if you will be 
surprised when I say that the law of 
Suggestion gives us the scientific ex- 
planation for prayer. As we come to 
realize our true relation to God, that 
we are in Him and He in us; that in 
this deeper self, in this sub-conscious 
realm of our natures, we possess that 

68 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

which links us to the Infinite Mind, 
and makes us akin to the Universal 
Soul of God, then, when we send down 
to that deeper Self this earnest desire, 
when we earnestly hold in our minds 
these ideal thoughts of what we want 
to achieve in our moral and spiritual 
life, psychologically, we are employing 
the power of suggestion; religiously 
we are laying hold of the power of 
prayer, and in either case we are reach- 
ing the sources of infinite power, in the 
God who dwells within us. 

I wonder if you see that instead of 
outgrowing prayer we have been grow- 
ing into a profounder and more spirit- 
ual conception of w T hat prayer is, and 
its possibilities in our daily lives. Every 
invention is a prayer, every discovery 
is a prayer, every bit of honest work 
done in the desire for success is a 
prayer, every expression of love is 
prayer. We need to banish forever 

69 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

the false distinction between things 
religious and secular. From centre to 
circumference of this universe all is 
sacred, for God is everywhere, reveal- 
ing Himself in everything. Instead of 
prayer consisting of a particular form 
of words, offered in a certain physical 
attitude of the body, prayer is the de- 
sire, the aspiration, the secret ambition 
going forth from every man's heart 
every hour of his life. 

Do we receive answers to our pray- 
ers ? Jesus said: "And when thou 
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypo- 
crites; for they love to pray standing 
in the synagogues, that they may be 
seen of men. Verily, they have their 
reward." We have interpreted these 
words as words of condemnation. I 
do not think that Jesus means them 
in that sense at all. He says, in the 
case of one who prays to be seen of 
men, that his prayer is answered, for 
70 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

his real prayer is to be seen of men, 
not the words he may utter. The man 
who cherishes the desire for wealth 
and personal fame, if it is strong and 
intense enough, and he fulfills the 
conditions whereby wealth and fame 
are attained, may reach his goal; and 
yet every night he may pray that God 
will make him pure and unselfish and 
kindly and humble. The real prayer 
of your life is that secret, intense desire 
that is with you day and night, not the 
words which pass your lips when in the 
attitude of prayer. Every thought you 
cherish, every ideal you hold, every 
ambition that is a real and vital part 
of yourself, is the real prayer of your 
life; and these real prayers, sooner 
or later, are answered. It does not 
need the Bible to prove it. Psychology 
gives us the reasons why, and human 
experience bears witness every day to 
its truth. 

71 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

What can be said as to the value of 
prayer for others ? We know how large 
a part such prayer has played in the 
religious life of the past. With our 
newer thought of God, is there any 
need of praying for others ? Think 
a moment! According to the scientist, 
the fact of telepathy has been clearly 
proven. Thought-transference is no 
longer an hypothesis. When we read 
in the papers recently the thrilling ex- 
perience on board the steamer " Re- 
public," as that wonderful machine 
sent forth its wireless messages into 
the darkness of the night, calling to its 
aid numerous vessels hundreds of 
miles distant, what did it mean ? I 
talked with a gentleman recently who 
is helping to perfect an organization 
to put upon the market the wireless 
telephone. He is in personal touch 
with the leading men in the electrical 
field to-day, and he said: " The world 

72 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

is going to be startled as it never has 
been, by the new discoveries which we 
are preparing to make public." 

What do such inventions reveal, if 
not that this universe is in reality a 
great whispering gallery in which the 
law of vibrations governs throughout, 
where not only physical but mental 
forces travel with the rapidity of light- 
ning? In an age when telepathy is 
admitted, when wireless telegraphy is 
in constant use, and the wireless tele- 
phone is soon to appear, how can any 
one longer question the fact that our 
thoughts travel from us to other lives, 
and influence other characters for 
weal or for woe? 

Shall a mother, then, pray for her 
wayward son ? Why not ? Under 
the old view she prayed to a God who 
was in some distant heaven, for her 
boy who was struggling on earth with 
evil. She did not understand just how, 

73 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

but she believed that if she prayed long 
enough and earnestly enough, some 
power from God might reach and save 
her boy. The fact remains the same, 
but what is the explanation to-day ? 
She knows that as God is in her, so 
He is in her wayward boy; and she 
knows that her thoughts and desires, 
the strongest forces in her mother's 
heart, can travel through miles of 
space if need be, and influence the 
boy — becoming, not all at once, per- 
haps, but eventually, the great factor 
in bringing him to himself. But, you. 
say, would you explain the influence 
of a mother's prayer merely by telep- 
athy ? What is telepathy but God's 
divine law whereby one soul may 
reach and transform another soul ? 
Our prayers to God, when they consist 
of these earnest, intense desires that 
others may be blessed, are not prayers 
to some distant throne; they are but 

74 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

the means whereby spiritual forces 
from the God in us reach the indwell- 
ing God in those for whom we pray. 

But we have not yet spoken of prayer 
in its highest manifestations — the 
prayer that consists of communion 
with the Infinite. We have been think- 
ing of prayer as petition, as asking for 
blessings, material or spiritual, either 
for ourselves or for others. I have 
tried to help you see that there is a 
scientific basis for prayer as petition, 
on both the material and spiritual 
planes. And yet if this is all we know 
of prayer, we have missed the highest. 

One of the most wonderful things 
about Jesus Christ is His teaching 
in regard to prayer. We never read 
of His having made a public prayer, 
but we read often of His going apart 
alone to pray. Is there need of many 
words, for a child to make its father 
understand ? It is the heathen, says 
/ 75 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

Jesus, who make many prayers. The 
Father knows your need before you 
ask Him. It is a mark of unbelief to 
be anxious about food and drink and 
raiment; your Heavenly Father takes 
care of the sparrows and the flowers, 
and will He not take care of you? 
Jesus' whole thought is this: The 
essential thing, is not to multiply peti- 
tions, but to live near Him, and feel 
Him ever near. In a man's spiritual 
development, as the history of prayer 
is unfolded in his own personal life, 
this is the inevitable trend : from asking 
for things on the material plane we 
move to a higher plane and are content 
to ask for things spiritual, and from 
asking for things spiritual we move on 
still further, until we cease to ask for 
anything at all, until prayer reaches 
its highest form, of communion of the 
soul with God's soul. I sit down by 
the side of my friend, I take his hand 
76 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

and look into his eyes; there exists 
the bond of sympathy, and we ex- 
change ideas. I rise at length encour- 
aged and uplifted, as does he. I have 
not asked him for anything; he has not 
asked me for anything. I have not 
expected to change him, and he has 
not tried to change me. As two true 
friends we have spent the hour in com- 
munion. This is prayer at its highest 
and best. What would the father think 
if his boy should beg and plead over 
and over again for him to do some- 
thing that was good and right ? It 
would sadden the father's heart inex- 
pressibly, and whether he said it to the 
boy or not, he would say to himself, 
" Does not my child understand that 
everything that is best for him he is 
going to get from me, and that he does 
not need to beg and plead for it?" 
I heard a man in prayer-meeting once 
say, " Oh, Lord, it is high time that 

77 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

Thou shouldest begin to work. Why 
dost Thou leave the multitude to per- 
ish ? " Could anything be more blas- 
phemous ? As if God were not always 
working, as if God were not a great 
deal more concerned that men and 
women should be saved than you and 
I; as if we had to beg and plead with 
God to " come down and manifest His 
power in saving men." 

Can you not see how childish all 
such prayer actually is, and how it is 
really prompted by unfaith in God's 
goodness ? He is your Father. Is He 
not almighty and all-good ? Does He 
not love you better than you love your- 
selves ? Does He not make all things 
work together for the good of His 
children ? If trials come or dangers 
threaten, can you not trust God, and 
believe that these experiences are per- 
mitted for your own highest develop- 
ment ? 

78 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

It is a long journey from the prayer 
of selfishness that seeks to bend God's 
will to ours, to the prayer of Jesus in 
the garden, " Nevertheless, not my 
will but Thine be done." And yet 
this is the pathway over which we all 
at length must come. He only prays 
truly who is conscious that God's will 
is best, His way right. I Would never 
dare to ask God to change His will. If 
I thought for a moment that my prayer 
would effect any change in God, I 
would ask to be stricken dumb before 
the prayer left my lips. Who am I, 
to say what God's will should be ? If 
I trust Him and believe that He is the 
God whom Jesus came to reveal, 
the God of infinite love, the all-wise 
Father of the human race, then be it 
mine only to trust Him and seek to live 
in communion with Him. 

The reason that our prayers or de- 
sires have failed so often of fruition 
79 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

is simply because we lack the vital 
force of faith which alone assures the 
answer. If we could but realize that 
the reason why we are still in the lower 
stages of development, why we have 
not yet emerged from the kindergarten 
room of spiritual experience, why our 
lives are lived on low levels instead of 
high, is not that we do not pray enough, 
but because we do not know how to 
pray aright and put so little faith into 
our prayers or desires. Jesus said: 
" All things whatsoever ye ask and 
pray for, believe that ye have them and 
ye shall receive them." Let the young 
man who goes forth to business be- 
lieve firmly that he is going to be suc- 
cessful, and nothing can defeat him in 
the attainment of his end ? Let the 
student but feel that he cannot fail of 
reaching the heights of knowledge, and 
there is no power that can prevent him 
from attaining his ideals. 

80 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

The things you ask for, the things 
you desire, " Believe that ye have thern 
and ye shall receive them." This is 
the principle of Jesus, corroborated by 
the psychology which explains the real 
significance of the law of suggestion. 
It is when you believe that you have 
the desire of your heart that your 
prayer is answered, for when the de- 
sire is so intense and strong that noth- 
ing can thwart its power, it cannot 
fail of accomplishing its transforming 
work within. 

The opportunity of communion with 
the Infinite is the daily opportunity of 
our lives, the priceless privilege of the 
soul. How quick we should be to 
recognize its meaning! Jesus said, 
" When ye pray, enter into thy inner 
chamber " — that is, enter into the 
chamber of your inner soul and shut 
the door, and in silence ki pray to thy 
Father." If we should resolve to test 
81 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

the privilege of prayer by going into 
the silence, shutting the door upon the 
outer world, and there in communion 
alone with God come into vitaLrelation 
with the great Divine resources within, 
our lives would tell the story; men 
would know that we had been with 
Him, and learned of Him. 

Let me quote in closing a few words 
from Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of 
the University of Birmingham, one of 
the foremost scientists, and perhaps 
the leading physicist in the world to- 
day, a thorough-going evolutionist who 
accepts and believes in all that is 
called modern science, but whose faith 
in prayer is strong and vital. It is not 
the old form of prayer of which he is 
speaking; it is prayer revitalized by 
our newer thinking. He says: 

" In prayer we come into close com- 
munion with a Higher than we know, 
and seek to contemplate divine per- 
82 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER 

fection. Its climax and consummation 
is attained when we realize the per- 
manence, the entire goodness, and the 
fatherly love of the Divine Being. 
The highest type of prayer has for its 
object not any material benefits, beyond 
those necessary for our activity and 
usefulness, but the enlightenment and 
amendment of our wills, the elevation 
of all humanity and the coming of 
God's kingdom." 

We have not yet outgrown prayer; 
rather are we coming to understand 
what the Apostle means by " praying 
without ceasing," when every desire, 
every aspiration, all honest work done, 
all love expressed, shall constitute the 
habitual prayer of the inner life, binding 
us ever more closely to the Eternal, 
and rinding its realization in our union 
with God. 



83 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 



r 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 




HAT am I? Whence came I ? 
Whither am I going ? What 
is the object of my exist- 
ence here ? These questions 
have been asked by man in all ages 
and in every clime. If the countless 
worlds surrounding the millions of suns 
in our Universe are inhabited by con- 
scious beings, these same questions 
are asked there. For most of us 
these questions still remain unan- 
swered. We have sought, we have 
studied, we have believed, we have 
puzzled, we have theorized, we have 
guessed, and yet how much do we 
really know, how many of these deeper 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

problems of man's being have we 
actually solved in personal experience ? 
As Tennyson pathetically expressed it, 

" For what am I ? 

An infant crying in the night, 
An infant crying for the light, 

And with no language but a cry." 

We are like the caged squirrel, who 
chases around his wheel until at last 
exhausted, he finds himself just where 
he started. Many of us have eagerly 
begun to climb the mountain of Knowl- 
edge. We have read books, have 
studied earnestly, have listened to lec- 
tures and addresses and sermons of 
every kind, and finally, weary in body 
and mind, we have reached the top 
of the mountain, only to find that our 
mountain is a mere tableland, and high 
above us stretch lofty peaks yet un- 
sealed. Or we have set out in the quest 
for spiritual truth; we have turned to 
4 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

first one authority, and then another. 
We have most earnestly sought for 
spiritual bread, and we have been 
given the cold stones of dogma or 
creed, of church ordinance or ecclesias- 
tical authority, and we have turned 
from our search well-nigh in despair. 
But even in our despair we cannot for- 
get that this hunger of the soul is the 
surest sign that somewhere there must 
be found the spiritual bread. Just as 
there is physical food to meet the needs 
of the body; just as there is nourish- 
ment for the hunger of the mind, so 
the presence within us of this spiritual 
thirst, this soul-hunger for reality, is 
the positive proof of the ultimate satis- 
faction of our deepest longings and 
noblest aspirations. Most of us have 
failed in our search — we are still 
restless, anxious, troubled, doubting 
and fearful, because we have been 
looking outside, for that which can 
5 



• SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

only be found within. Happiness, 
peace, power, satisfaction, can never 
be found in externals. If discovered 
at all, it will only be as they are 
realized in one's inner spiritual con- 
sciousness, " For the kingdom of God 
is within you." 

We have commonly associated spirit- 
ual life mainly with some future ex- 
istence. Much of the preaching of 
the church has tended to give the im- 
pression that we would one day become 
spiritual beings, but that now the 
spiritual life was an ideal to be cher- 
ished, rather than a fact to be realized 
in daily experience; or else, if this has 
not been our idea, we have heard so 
many strange and abnormal types of 
character called " spiritual," that we 
have said to ourselves, " If the ' spirit- 
ual ' life leads to such results, I prefer 
to turn my quest in other directions." 
The first question to be faced frankly 
6 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

and if possible, honestly answered, is 
this: " Is there such a thing as a nor- 
mal spiritual life possible to all men — 
to be lived not in some distant sphere 
but here and now in this present world ? 
And if so, in what does it consist, and 
how is it to be attained ? " 

Will you think with me briefly, of 
the deeper meaning of life as we know 
it and observe its development ? The 
most wonderful and altogether the 
most significant thing to be said about 
life, is this: That as we trace it from 
its earliest beginnings up to the present 
time, we find a gradual unfolding oj 
consciousness. You may never have 
thought of it in just this way, but a 
little reflection will prove that life, 
from its lowest to its highest forms, has 
always consisted in the slow but sure 
unfoldment of consciousness. Until 
recently scientists have divided matter 
into organic and inorganic, and they 
7 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

have regarded a large part of the uni- 
verse as consisting of dead, or non- 
living matter. But the more advanced 
scientists, as we have seen, are telling 
us that there is no longer any such 
thing as "dead matter;" that vital 
and even psychic processes are to be 
found in the lowest kingdom. If there 
is life, there must be the first faint hints 
of sensation, and sensation is the be- 
ginning of consciousness. Intelligence 
is merely a matter of degree, and even 
the mineral has its law of life which it 
obeys. As we enter the organic world, 
the signs of a low form of consciousness 
become more apparent. Among the 
lower forms of life, where it is difficult 
to distinguish between the plant and 
animal, there are wants which the 
organism has power to satisfy, reveal- 
ing a simple form of mental effort, 
which appears to be wholly along sub- 
conscious lines. It is this which is 

8 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

often spoken of as the " life force " 
in plants. In some of the higher forms 
of plant life, however, there appears 
a hint of independent " life action," 
— a faint indication of the beginning 
of consciousness. Among animals 
further up the scale, we discern a much 
higher grade of consciousness, varying 
in degree in the different species. The 
degree of consciousness in the highest 
animals, such as the horse and dog, 
almost approaches that of the lowest 
forms of the human race, and certainly 
reaches that of the young child. What 
we need to observe in the evolution 
of plants and animals, is the slow de- 
velopment of this something, that in 
man we finally call " consciousness." 
The plants and animals highest in the 
scale approach most nearly to what 
we mean by " the state of conscious- 
ness ; " those lowest down are the least 
conscious, — though the hints and sug- 
9 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

gestions of a consciousness yet to be, 
are discernible even in these lowest 
forms. 

In the human family, the little child 
lives its first two or three years, in a 
state of simple consciousness, which is 
a condition of awareness of outward 
things — i. e. things other than the 
inner self. The child's consciousness 
consists wholly of physical sensations, 
hunger, thirst, heat, cold, painful and 
pleasurable feelings. By and by there 
dawns a great day in the life of the 
child, when the " ego " emerges into 
consciousness, and the child becomes a 
self-conscious being. Self-conscious- 
ness is an awareness of the inner self — 
the result of turning the mental gaze 
inward. Little by little is unfolded 
gradually the more clearly defined 
consciousness of the " ego." The child 
compares itself with other children, 
contrasts itself with other members 
10 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

of the family, sets itself over against 
brother and sister or parent, the "ego" 
asserting itself more definitely as the 
child grows into the deeper conscious- 
ness of its selfhood. This is what we 
mean by growth in the child; not 
physical or mental development merely, 
but the deepening or unfolding of self- 
consciousness. If this is lacking, the 
child is abnormal, and we are justly 
concerned. There are many people 
who know very little about the deeper 
possibilities of self -consciousness ; they 
take themselves as a matter of course, 
they rarely turn their gaze inward; 
they do not stop to analyze their mental 
faculties or become conversant with 
their mental powers and possibilities; 
they simply live in this outward objec- 
tive world like thoughtless children. 
Then there are others who become 
morbidly self-conscious, who direct their 
gaze inward so constantly, that they 
11 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

lose vital contact with the objective 
world and become abnormal in their 
living and thinking. 

As we observe those who have ar- 
rived at self -consciousness, here again 
we find all degrees of development, for 
the self-conscious life may be lived 
on different planes. Multitudes of 
people about us, neither very good or 
very bad, are living on the physical 
plane, in the sense that the physical 
life or the life of the body is the dom- 
inating life. I do not mean that there 
is no mental or moral life, but what- 
ever exists of the higher life is plainly 
subordinated to the physical. Such a 
person thinks of himself, when he 
thinks at all, as being a body; if he 
speaks of his mind or soul, it is in the 
same way that he would speak of his 
hat or his coat, — something that he 
has, instead of what he is; but he has 
no deep realizing consciousness of the 
12 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

meaning of mind and soul. He eats, 
drinks, sleeps and performs many tasks 
every day. He uses his mind just 
enough to discharge the duties of daily 
life. He may sink to the plane of the 
sensual life, or he may simply live on 
the surface, this sensuous life. You 
cannot call him an intellectual man. 
You cannot call him in the deep sense 
a moral man, though he may break no 
law of societv. You cannot call him 
in any true sense a spiritual man, for 
he knows not the meaning of spirit. 
It is the physical life which predomi- 
nates in him. Such a man does not 
suffer, except as pain attacks the body. 
He does not worry about mental prob- 
lems. He does not vex his soul with 
the deeper questions of life. These 
things do not concern him, for he is not 
conscious of them. He wonders that 
anybody in the world should be con- 
cerned about such matters. It is 

13 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

enough for him to eat and sleep and do 
his work and go the routine round year 
after year. He enjoys a sort of animal 
happiness, and it seems rather a pity 
that he has to be awakened and face 
the pain of the next stage of develop- 
ment — but life is inexorable — the 
child must grow in spite of pain, 
even by means of pain ; and he has only 
reached as yet the child's plane of 
physical consciousness. 

Then there are many who have 
passed out of the physical plane of con- 
sciousness, into the mental. They are 
living on the intellectual plane. They 
have come to understand something 
of the power of the Intellect. They 
enjoy reading, music, art, travel; they 
find pleasure in conversation with other 
intellectual friends. The body is a 
part of them, but it is held in abeyance; 
it no longer controls. It is an instru- 
ment to be used by them, and the 
14 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

dominating " ego " is the intellectual. 
We all know people who find their 
greatest joy and satisfaction in the 
pleasures of the intellectual life, to 
whom the physical temptations make 
little or no appeal, who live day after 
day in the higher atmosphere of thought 
or study. This plane represents a dis- 
tinct unfoldment of consciousness, a 
decided advance on the consciousness 
of the physical plane. Here we find 
the moral life more or less highly de- 
veloped, though the intellectual life 
is by no means free from its peculiar 
besetting sins. 

Is there a still higher plane of con- 
sciousness, above the moral and in- 
tellectual ? Unquestionably there is, 
and the consciousness of man must 
still continue to unfold, until it reaches 
the spiritual plane. There can be no 
question that the higher, or " spiritual 
man," must be the moral man, but 

15 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

I think we must all agree that the 
moral man may not be the spiritual 
man, in the sense that he has not yet 
reached this higher plane of conscious- 
ness. It is impossible to draw any hard 
and fast line. The physical blends into 
the intellectual, and the intellectual 
blends into the spiritual. You will 
never find a man who is altogether 
physical, or one who is altogether in- 
tellectual, any more than you will find 
one who is altogether spiritual. These 
different planes of consciousness im- 
pinge on one another. But the real 
question is this: After we have grown 
out of the simple consciousness of the 
child, into self -consciousness ; after we 
have passed through the physical stage 
to the moral and intellectual, is there 
still a higher plane of consciousness for 
man ? We have heard the preacher 
talk about the spiritual life since child- 
hood, but has it any reality ? Has it 

16 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

any basis in fact ? Is there any actual 
ground in human experience for think- 
ing that man's consciousness may un- 
fold into the life of the Spirit ? 

I firmly believe there is, and these 
are some of the reasons for my con- 
viction. First, because the Intellectual 
life does not satisfy. Tolstoi somewhere 
says, " As soon as the Intellect has 
taken control of a person, new worlds 
are opened and desires are multiplied 
a thousand-fold. Thev become as 
numerous as the radii of a circle; and 
the mind with care and anxiety sets itself 
first to cultivate and then to gratify 
these desires, thinking that happiness 
is to be attained in that way." There 
are rare pleasures in the intellectual 
life, known only to those who have 
experienced them ; but there are poign- 
ant pains as well. The more one 
thinks, the greater the capacity for 
suffering. One may start out ever so 
17 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

ambitiously in the solution of life's 
problems, but before long, if he follows 
the guidance of Intellect solely, he 
finds himself back at the place where 
he began. At the end of every intel- 
lectual journey, stands the old question, 
" Why ? " There is a weariness in the 
life of the Intellect merely, which all 
great thinkers have experienced. The 
intellect can achieve wondrous results 
and answer many questions within its 
own field, but its field is circumscribed, 
and in the end man is still unsatisfied. 
The deeper problems of existence are 
not solved by the intellect. You can- 
not demonstrate the Being of God by 
the reason; you cannot prove the 
existence of a future life by the reason; 
you cannot demonstrate by intellectual 
processes alone that you are a Soul. 
These deeper truths of life elude us on 
the intellectual plane. 

Another reason for the belief that 

18 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

there is a higher plane of conscious- 
ness beyond the Intellectual, is found 
in the fact that there is no one who does 
not live at times on that higher plane. 
Whether he be a professing Christian 
or not, every one lives on this higher 
plane of spiritual consciousness in some 
experiences of life. Justice, kindness, 
mercy, sympathy and disinterested love 
— are these the product of cold intel- 
lect ? From the standpoint of logic 
merely, is there any reason why you 
should not trample your brother in 
the mire and take his belongings if 
you choose ? From the coldly intel- 
lectual standpoint is there any reason 
why you should forget yourself and 
make sacrifices and go forth on errands 
of mercy ? The coldly intellectual 
man or woman, as we use the expres- 
sion, stands to us as the type of the ex- 
treme of selfishness, of brutality and 
inhumanity. There is no one quite 

19 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

so repellent as the intellectual person 
who is without human sympathy, kind- 
ness and love. And these qualities 
which are expressed to a greater or less 
degree in every life, are not dictated 
by the Intellect; we do not reason 
about these things — we listen to the 
voice within and obey. At such times, 
one is living in the spiritual conscious- 
ness. I do not care what the act may 
be or how trivial it may seem, if it is 
done unselfishly, one is living, for the 
moment at least, the spiritual life; 
for unselfish love in any of its forms is 
the fruit of the Spirit. If you could 
find a person so depraved, that he never 
had a kindly thought, or spoke a loving 
word, or did an unselfish deed, then 
you would have discovered a life abso- 
lutely unspiritual, in which there was 
no spiritual life. But even in the lowest 
criminals and outcasts of society, there 
are at times outbursts of unselfishness, 

20 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

flashes of kindness, that prove the ex- 
istence in them of the Divine Spark, 
even yet — in spite of all our theologies. 
The trouble lies here, that with most of 
us, the spiritual life is an occasional 
or spasmodic thing ; we live on the plane 
of the spirit for this little while, and 
then we drop to the intellectual or 
physical plane. The spiritual con- 
sciousness is but faintly developed in 
us, and we are not yet confirmed and 
habitual in our life on the spiritual plane. 
Psychology furnishes still further evi- 
dence of the spiritual stage of con- 
sciousness. Professors Star buck and 
Coe, who have made an exhaustive 
study of the development of conscious- 
ness in human life, tell us, as the result 
of generalizations from a multitude 
of carefully observed facts, that there 
is a time in every normal life, some- 
where between the ages of fifteen to 
twenty, when there takes place a moral 

21 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

and spiritual awakening. It is at this 
time that the boy or girl begins to ask, 
" What is my relation to the universe 
or to God, what should be my rela- 
tions to others ? " It is then that the 
altruistic sentiments are aroused and 
earnest life-purposes formed. It is 
the natural time for religious conversion 
to take place; and if parents and 
teachers are only wise and sympathetic, 
the boy or girl enters naturally upon 
the next stage in the unfolding of con- 
sciousness — viz. the spiritual. 

The law of Evolution written deep 
in our own natures, — this law of 
" going on," this instinct deep as life 
itself, that makes us feel we are here 
to grow constantly into higher and 
richer experiences, is another evidence 
for the spiritual life. No matter how 
far we have come physically, morally 
or intellectually, we know we cannot 
stand still; for the law of growth is 
22 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

the law of life, as it is the law of the 
universe. Every stage in life hereto- 
fore has been preparatory to some- 
thing higher, and the man who attains 
the greatest heights intellectually is 
conscious that he has not reached the 
final summit. It may seem vague, we 
may not understand just what that 
higher state is to be, but in all of us 
there is a power urging us on, leading us 
forward, forcing us to believe that we 
have not yet exhausted life's meaning 
or drained to its dregs life's cup of 
possibilities. 

If further reason were needed to 
show that there is something beyond 
the life on the Intellectual and Moral 
plane, there is the testimony of count- 
less lives in all ages, who have lived 
at least to a degree this higher life and 
have become more or less deeply con- 
scious of their spiritual natures. 

Spiritual life, then, is the life lived 

23 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

by those in whom consciousness has 
unfolded beyond the intellectual and 
moral stage, disclosing to view the 
possibilities on the spiritual plane. It 
is perfectly normal. It is part of God's 
plan for the development of every life. 
We are all in the process of unfolding; 
the only difference is that some are 
farther on than others. Can we at- 
tempt to characterize in words, the life 
of one whose soul has awakened, whose 
consciousness has unfolded into the 
spiritual ? In describing the meaning 
of the Spiritual life, I realize that I am 
attempting the impossible. I can only 
offer hints and suggestions as to its 
deeper significance. My words will 
doubtless be full of meaning for some, 
and have little or no meaning for others. 
There are experiences of the spiritual 
consciousness of which we dare not 
speak, for fear they would not be 
understood. 

24 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

The one who has awakened, here 
and now, to his spiritual consciousness, 
realizes for the first time what the 
" ego " actually is. Henceforth he 
regards body and mind solely as in- 
struments to be used. He knows that 
he is not dependent upon the physical 
body, but is conscious of having always 
existed, and of being destined for an 
eternal existence. The past does not 
worry him; the future causes no anx- 
iety; he has attained to the conscious- 
ness of his spiritual selfhood which he 
knows to be imperishable and eternal. 
He goes through the days in the glad 
consciousness that nothing can hurt, 
nothing can injure, nothing can destroy 
him ; that he is not the body, he is not 
the intellect; he is the soul, the spiritual 
" ego " who stands back of and em- 
ploys both for great and glorious ends. 

Such an awakened soul is keenly 
joyous in the presence of the Now. 

25 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

He regards himself as a vital part of 

the whole. He feels himself as everv- 

1/ 

where at home in the universe. He 
knows that he is an emanation of the 
Divine, a particle of God, if you will, 
housed for a little while in this mechan- 
ism we call the body. He may not be 
able to solve all the problems, but he 
does not demand their instant explana- 
tion, knowing that in God's good time, 
as he continues to unfold in spiritual 
consciousness, the light will break and 
the meaning of life's mystery will be 
more fully revealed. He is daily con- 
scious of the nearness of the Universal 
presence. His faith consists no longer 
in beliefs about God, for his faith has be- 
come knowledge, and he lives day after 
day in the glad consciousness of his one- 
ness with the Eternal Father. He be- 
lieves not only that God created him 
sometime in the past, but that God is in 
him now, sustaining and keeping, nour- 

26 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

ishing and leading, teaching and de- 
veloping him at every step he takes in 
life's journey. Not only is he conscious 
of his oneness with God, but he realizes 
just as truly his oneness with man. 
He no longer draws any distinction 
between himself and his fellows. As 
he looks out upon society, he sees all 
men as his brothers and all women as his 
sisters. Hate, envy, jealousy, rancour, 
cruelty, selfishness, greed and avarice 
— these things fall away from him, be- 
cause he sees himself as a part of all 
other lives. He knows that whatever 
is good for one is good for all, and 
that whatever hurts one, hurts all. 
He knows full well that he can never 
injure another without injuring himself, 
that his life is knit up inextricably with 
all humanity; and so his heart inevit- 
ably goes out in disinterested love to all 
men and women. He loves the vilest 
man, he loves the most degraded 

27 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

woman, because he sees the possibility 
of the spiritual consciousness one day 
being developed in them; he under- 
stands that they are journeying as he 
has journeyed, and while he has gone 
far beyond them, still he knows that 
they too must travel the same pathway 
— that no life can ever be left out when 
the gracious purposes of God are 
made complete. What men call sin, 
he translates into terms of ignorance 
and selfishness. He no longer despises 
and condemns others. He pities them 
and he tries to help them with all the 
strength of his loving manhood. The 
spiritual man not only realizes his one- 
ness with God, but he never fails to 
realize his oneness with all humanity. 

The awakened Soul is sure that while 
all is law yet all is love; that God is 
infinite Love — He always has been 
and always must be. All the lurking 
fear in his heart vanishes entirely, for 

28 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

he knows now that his fear of God in 
days gone by was due to his ignorance 
of God. As he looks upon men and 
women, struggling and striving, grop- 
ing their way, slipping backward, rising 
and falling again and again, he knows 
that God looks down upon them all 
with infinite tenderness and compassion 
simply because He understands; and 
that some day, as sure as God is God, 
these erring, sinning, struggling, falling 
men and women will reach up their 
hands to the outstretched hand of the 
Eternal, and forevermore follow where 
He leads. The spiritual man is no 
longer fearful in the presence of death, 
for he has learned at last that life and 
death, the twin mysteries, are but one 
after all; that death is never the end 
of life but only an incident in life; that 
whenever death may come, it is simply 
a rebirth ; that as these earthly gar- 
ments fall away, the real Self continues 

29 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

to unfold into ever more abounding 
Life. 

These and other experiences, too 
lofty for words to express, are born in 
the soul when it awakens to life on the 
plane of spiritual consciousness. All 
about us men and women are attaining 
to it, some slowly, some more rapidly; 
we are all spiritual to a degree, very 
few of us have yet learned how to live 
habitually on the spiritual plane. 
Sometimes the soul awakens to this 
new consciousness suddenly. It may 
be through some startling experience, 
such as sorrow, or calamity, or great 
disappointment. But for most men, the 
development into this next stage of 
consciousness is slow and gradual. 
Most of us are slowly awakening. We 
are like the man roused from a deep 
sleep, who rubs his eyes and wonders 
where he is; his sleep has gone, but 
he is not yet thoroughly awake. This 
30 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

is where most of us stand. We are 
not satisfied with the intellectual or 
moral or physical life which we have 
been living, and we have begun to 
yield ourselves to the Spirit and live 
upon this higher plane, at least occa- 
sionally; but we are rubbing our eyes, 
we do not see clearly, we have not yet 
learned how to live the spiritual life 
continuously. 

A few years ago it was my privilege 
to know a prominent physician, who 
held a place of wide influence in his 
home city, because of his exceptional 
ability — thoroughly upright and re- 
spected for his fearless honesty, and 
yet, a man who despised religion, and 
had nothing good to say for the 
churches. He always spoke of himself 
as a materialist; he did not believe in 
God, the soul, or a future life; he be- 
lieved that religion was merely a sur- 
vival of old superstitions, and should 

31 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

have no place in the intellectual life 
of our day. He used to spend his 
Sunday evenings with a little group 
of friends, reading the works of ma- 
terialistic writers. One day he was 
taken sick with typhoid fever. He was 
only sick a week. The fever was low. 
The doctors and nurses all agreed that 
during this week's illness he was never 
delirious. He died at the end of the 
seventh day, not from the typhoid 
fever, but as the result of other com- 
plications. They had no idea that he 
would die up to the last twelve hours 
of his life. On the night before the 
day on which he died, two doctors who 
were his closest friends, his wife, — 
an extremely intellectual woman, — 
and the nurse, all of whom shared his 
materialistic views, were present in 
the room. About ten o'clock he called 
his wife to the bedside and motioned 
for the others to come near. Remem- 

32 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

ber, he had not been a very sick man, 
nobody anticipated that death was 
near, the complications had not set 
in as yet, and he was in the full control 
of his mental faculties. What he said 
was written down by his wife after- 
wards and I read his words which were 
in substance these: " You know what 
my life has been. You know me to 
be an honest man, you know I am not 
afraid to face either the present or the 
future. You know how honestly I 
have disbelieved in all religion. I tell 
you now and I want you to believe that 
I am speaking out of what I know, 
that I have been all wrong. I know 
there is a God. I know there is a 
future life. I know I have a soul." 
And then turning to one of the doctors 
present, he said, " After I am dead 
I want you to go to the Academy of 
Medicine and tell the other doctors 
what I have just told you." After his 

33 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

death these four people tacitly agreed 
to make no mention of this startling 
experience for a month. Each one 
was left free to think the experience 
over by himself, and come to his own 
conclusions. At the end of the month 
they came together and after talking 
the matter over, they all agreed that 
he was perfectly rational, that it was 
the honest conviction of his own mind, 
that whatever may have led him to such 
a complete change of attitude, it was 
an honest and intelligent change on his 
part; and they believed it to such a 
degree that his friend went to the next 
meeting of the Academy of Medicine, 
and gave the message from their former 
member. I do not know what this man 
saw or experienced in those few days 
of sickness, but knowing the individuals 
and all the circumstances as I do, I 
am convinced beyond the shadow of a 
doubt that certain experiences did 

34 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

come to him, that actual knowledge, 
— I do not know just how, — was given 
him, because of which he was justified 
in saying, " I know there is a God and a 
future life." It has been to me a 
striking illustration of the fact that it 
is possible for men and women to 
become aware of these great realities 
of the spiritual world, here in this life, 
before the portals of death have been 
passed. This man had lived on the 
intellectual plane, an intense intellec- 
tual life, but there came the time before 
death, when he learned the truth, when 
his soul awakened as his spiritual con- 
sciousness began to unfold. 

I have stated what seems to me 
strong evidence for the spiritual life, 
not by quoting passages of Scripture, 
as might have been done, but by pre- 
senting the evidence of human expe- 
rience to-day. The Bible is but the 
record of human experience in an age 

35 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

long since gone; I have sought to 
bring you that experience in terms 
of to-day's life, as we see and know it. 
Nothing can be clearer than that 
Humanity is being prepared for the 
next stage in its development; that we 
are standing on the threshold of a new 
era — the era of the Spiritual Man. 
The race has evolved through simple 
consciousness, through physical, in- 
tellectual and moral consciousness, and 
To-morrow will usher in the new age 
of the spiritual consciousness of the 
race. The time is coming, not very 
far off, when, we will look back upon 
these records of warfare, bloodshed, 
killing, extermination, just as to-day 
we look back upon the old gladiatorial 
combats in the Colosseum of Ancient 
Rome. The time is coming in the 
evolution of the race, when men will 
regard our economic and social in- 
humanity to our brothers and sisters 
36 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

as horrible and incredible in an age 
of our intellectual development, ex- 
actly as we now look back upon the 
barbarities and cruelties practised in 
the primitive life of man. The race 
is surely growing, and when the spirit- 
ual consciousness of humanity is once 
attained, the brotherhood of man will 
be no idle dream, but an every-day 
truth translated into actual life. 

The message of Jesus in its simplest 
terms, was the same truth reiterated 
and emphasized, — that men are spirit- 
ual beings, that all they need is to 
realize their oneness with God and their 
oneness with their fellows. To accept 
Jesus Christ means not merely believing 
certain things about the historical Jesus, 
who lived in Palestine 1900 years ago; 
it involves vastly more than that; it 
means that a man shall surrender him- 
self, in loyalty to the Christ who dwells 
in every one of us, to the Christ waiting 

37 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

to be revealed in every one of us, to the 
Christ Spirit which we all possess, in 
some measure, or at some time; only 
then does our acceptance of Him, our 
faith in Him, our belief in Him — 
I care not what terms you use, — be- 
come a saving power, because this is 
the only way that we become like Him. 
It may be that you are standing at 
the foot of the hill that leads to the 
spiritual heights above; as you think 
of your life it may seem that you have 
never awakened to your spiritual con- 
sciousness, as if your life had been 
altogether lived on the physical or in- 
tellectual, or moral plane. Perhaps 
you can see only one step ahead. Take 
the one step. Make up your mind to 
persevere in your quest for Truth and 
life, no matter what your disappoint- 
ments have been. Live in the great 
thought that you are a Spiritual Being, 
that the body and intellect are only 

38 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

instruments for you to use, that death 
can never touch you at all, that you 
are one with God and one with your 
fellows. It may be that you will find 
many things that must be cast aside, 

— prejudices, narrowness, bigotry, 
meannesses of various kinds, self-com- 
placency, pride and self -righteousness 

— you will have to get rid of all these 
encumbrances as you climb the heights, 
but rest assured, it is worth while. 
The true solution of the supreme prob- 
lem of every life is found in spiritual 
development, as we enter this higher 
state of consciousness and the soul 
begins to manifest its life and express 
its powers. What others have achieved, 
you may achieve; what others can do, 
you can do. If you hold to these 
thoughts, and shut your eyes to every- 
thing that is not spiritual, by the 
wondrous power of suggestion the 
spiritual consciousness will gradually 

39 



SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

unfold within you, for "As a man 
thinketh in his heart so is he." 

Thus as we enter into this spiritual 
consciousness, gradually the fruit of 
the Spirit will be apparent in us. How 
often we struggle, and agonize, and 
pray for the realization of those ideal 
qualities of character, such as peace, 
joy, love, meekness, gentleness, etc., 
and sadly wonder why our lives fail to 
reveal them. It is simply because 
we begin at the wrong end. The fruit 
will appear if the sources of life are pure. 
Begin with the inner life, whence all 
outward manifestations must proceed. 
As day by day we enter more deeply 
into the spiritual consciousness of our 
divine self-hood, — love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, meekness, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, temperance, against 
which there is no law, will become the 
dominant and abiding qualities of our 
characters. 

40 



THE KEDISCOVERY OF JESUS 







THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

HERE can be no question as 
to the greatness of the century 
just closed. If you have read 
Alfred Russell Wallace's book 
entitled " The Wonderful Century," you 
have in mind a most clear and vivid 
picture of its astonishing character. 
In one chapter the author compares 
the progress made during the past 
century with that made by all the 
preceding centuries of history. Up 
until the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, there were only five great prac- 
tical discoveries and inventions, which, 
according to Mr. Wallace, deserve 
to rank in the first-class. During the 

43 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

last hundred years there have been 
thirteen. Of theoretical discoveries, 
the number made in the last century 
have been just about equal to those 
made during the entire lifetime of the 
race. In all past history he finds only 
eight great principles, or fundamental 
theories antecedent to the nineteenth 
century, as compared with twelve dur- 
ing this century; so that his conclusion 
seems justified, that " to get any ade- 
quate comparison with the nineteenth 
century, we must take, not any one 
preceding century or group of centu- 
ries, but rather the whole preceding 
epoch of human history." One cannot 
read Mr. Wallace's summing up of the 
work of the century, without feeling 
that it is in very truth a " wonderful 
century," out of which we have just 
come. And yet, wonderful as its 
achievements have been, its true great- 
ness lies in the achievements to which 

44 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

it has opened up the way. Every dis- 
covery simply points the way for new 
and further discoveries. During the 
last century man has been learning the 
secrets of nature and gaining ever in- 
creasing dominion over physical forces. 
At last the time has arrived, when man 
is beginning to learn the secrets of his 
own being, and is about to attain the 
mastery over himself. Our century is 
preparing the way for a century still 
more wonderful — beyond the dream 
of imagination. 

The new physical order is plainly 
preparing the way for a new social 
order; and yet nothing is clearer to 
the leading students of our social prob- 
lems, than the fact that before the new 
social order can be ushered in there 
must appear the new Man, with a new 
spirit, a new mind, a new conscience, 
— in short, the man in whom lives 
the awakened soul. The new century 

45 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

upon which we have just entered will 
see this new man standing upon the 
earth, radiant in his new r intelligence, 
master of himself, mentally and phys- 
ically, glorious in the consciousness of 
his divine sonship. Unless we misread 
altogether the signs of the times, the 
work of the new century is to be psy- 
chic, rather than political or economic. 
It is to be more moral than intellectual. 
It is to be more spiritual than moral. 
It will consist primarily in leading man 
into the holy of holies of his inner Self, 
and revealing to him the wondrous 
possibilities of his life as a child of 
God. 

The newer thinking of our age 
along all lines is but helping to prepare 
the way for the coming of the new, the 
truly spiritual man who is yet to be 
upon the earth. I have tried to help 
you see that the New Thought Move- 
ment, in its essentials, consists of 

40 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

the blending of two thought-streams, 
one psychological, and one religious. 
Rightly understood it is not, in any 
sense, something apart from the essen- 
tials of Christianity. It is not hostile 
to the churches; neither does it an- 
tagonize the true spiritual activities of 
the Church. In its great essentials — 
and that is all that concerns us just 
now — it is part and parcel of the 
central truths of Christianity, and is 
in closest sympathy with the funda- 
mental purpose, the life and work of the 
Church. No one will question that 
Jesus stands in history, as the true 
exponent of the essentials of Christian- 
ity. If we desired to teach a person 
who knew nothing whatever about 
Christianity its real truth and meaning, 
we would not send him to any particu- 
lar church, or to any historic statement 
of theological belief; we would pre- 
sumably put the Gospels into his hands, 

47 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

and let him learn directly from the 
words of Jesus. If the teachings of the 
New Thought Movement are contra- 
dictory to the fundamental teachings 
of Jesus, if they are in opposition to 
the principles that lay at the founda- 
tion of His life and constituted the 
essence of His message, then certainly, 
as Christians, we might well pause 
and consider. But if it should be found 
that there is a close and vital relation 
between the New Thought teaching, 
so-called, and the fundamental teach- 
ings of Jesus ; if this modern movement, 
which is in accord with scientific teach- 
ings, should also prove to be in the 
closest sympathy with the message of 
Jesus, then certainly our faith and 
confidence in the authority of Jesus 
could not fail to be tremendously 
strengthened. 

We have not been accustomed to 
think of Jesus as a philosopher or a 

48 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

scientist. The world has regarded him 
for these many centuries, regardless of 
its theology about Him, as its greatest 
moral and religious Teacher. It is 
assuredly true that Jesus did not elab- 
orate any philosophic theory. He 
made no pretence to a systematic or 
scientific arrangement of His subjects. 
Nor is it recorded that He appealed to 
the reasoning faculties of His hearers 
by the use of logical formulas. It is 
strikingly characteristic of Jesus as a 
teacher that, in most instances, He 
merely cast His statements in the axio- 
matic form, leaving their accuracy and 
truth to be perceived by the intuition 
of His hearers. While this is true, 
nevertheless, that there is some basic 
system, whether of science or philos- 
ophy, underlying the teachings of Jesus, 
I think no intelligent follower of Him 
would dare deny; for the God who 
reveals Himself in Jesus must be the 

49 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

same God who is revealed in nature 
and the mind of man. Science and 
philosophy represent the attempts of the 
human mind to get at the ultimate facts 
of existence, and then to reasonably 
explain these facts. If Jesus is divine, 
then certainly His utterances must in the 
last analysis accord with the absolute 
basic truths of existence. Otherwise 
His authority would mean nothing for 
the intelligent man. If His axiomatic 
statements recorded in the Gospels 
do not harmonize with man's best and 
deepest thinking on these problems of 
the moral and spiritual life, then the 
authority of Jesus as a teacher of truth 
must vanish. 

I firmly believe that the time will 
yet come when that which is imperfect 
in the conclusions of science and phi- 
losophy, and that which is still imperfect 
in the conclusions of theology, will so 
far approximate accuracy in the state- 

50 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

ment of truth, that each will be seen 
to be in perfect harmony with all the 
others. Then it will be possible to give 
the whole human race the most con- 
vincing reasons for the existence of 
Jesus' precepts, and the supreme reason 
why they should be obeyed. " When 
that time comes, the value of these 
teachings will be immensely enhanced 
for those who look to reason rather 
than to authority, while it will not de- 
tract in the slightest from the alle- 
giance of those who accept Him, chiefly 
on the basis of His divinity ; and it will 
furnish both classes with abundant 
reasons why His teachings should be 
accepted as, in very truth, the message 
of God to man." 

Let us consider first, some of these 
fundamental teachings of Jesus, in 
comparison with what we have found 
to be the essential teachings of the New 
Thought movement, both in its relig- 

51 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

ious and psychological aspects. Jesus 
taught that religion is first and fore- 
most a thing of the inner life, rather 
than ' of outward observances. He 
lived and taught in an age when re- 
ligion was a thoroughly established 
system. The temple with its priest- 
hood and sacrificial ritual, the syna- 
gogue with its regular worship, the 
traditions of the elders, the binding 
authority of innumerable petty rules 
— these constituted the religious sys- 
tem of His day. Apparently Jesus 
paid no attention to the sacrifices car- 
ried on in the temple. He was not at 
all particular about attending the syna- 
gogue services. He utterly disregarded 
the religious restrictions of His time. 
Judging from His words, He regarded 
the religion of the leaders of that day as 
superficial, mechanical and insincere. 
He said to His followers: " Unless 
your righteousness shall exceed the 

52 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

righteousness," or " go far deeper than 
the righteousness of these scribes and 
Pharisees," these religious leaders, these 
church members of that day, " ye shall 
in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." We know that the " right- 
eousness " of the scribes and Pharisees 
was legal and formal, a thing of the 
head and not of the heart. It consisted 
in outward obedience to conventional 
religious customs, in conformance to 
established rituals, in the intellectual 
acceptance of orthodox creeds; in a 
word, it was external rather than in- 
ternal, it was mechanical rather than 
vital, it was hypocritical rather than 
genuine. No one has ever spoken more 
earnestly and emphatically against this 
whole conception of religion than did 
Jesus. Nowhere does He say that 
religion consists in Church attendance, 
in believing creeds or in conforming 
to rituals. These things upon which 

53 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

we have laid so much stress during 
the intervening centuries apparently 
had little significance for Him. All the 
time He was trying to help men see 
that religion consists not in outward 
observances, but in the inward life and 
disposition. 

What is this but the real starting 
point of the modern movement, which 
puts life before theology, which believes 
in the God who is within, as well as 
without, and which recognizes so fully 
the possibilities for development of the 
inner life of man ? 

Then you will recall that the first 
message of Jesus to men was, " Re- 
pent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand;" and when He sent His 
apostles out He instructed them to say, 
into whatever place they came, " Re- 
pent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand." This was also the mes- 
sage of John the Baptist, who pre- 
54 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

ceded Jesus. The meaning of the 
Greek word for " repent " is actually 
this: " Change your mind, or change 
your thinking." This first message 
of Jesus to His age and entrusted by 
Him to His apostles, was evidently, 
in His mind, the key-note to the whole 
moral and religious situation. What 
men needed first, in His judgment, was 
a change of mind, a transformation 
in their thinking. This is exactly 
where the New Thought movement 
places its emphasis to-day. 

Let me be a little more specific in the 
application of this thought of Jesus. 
All New Testament scholars, of what- 
ever school, are agreed that in the 
Sermon on the Mount, as it is recorded 
in Matthew's Gospel, we have the 
fundamental ethical and spiritual prin- 
ciples enunciated by Jesus, the real 
heart of His message to man. The 
New Testament student is also pretty 
55 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

well satisfied that in the essentials of 
this Sermon on the Mount we have the 
" final residuum " which Biblical criti- 
cism cannot touch. In other words, 
whatever else in the Gospel narratives 
may be open to doubt or uncertainty, in 
the Sermon on the Mount we approach 
as near the genuine thought and actual 
principles of Jesus as is possible after 
the lapse of these centuries. Since this 
is the opinion of those competent to 
judge, let us consider briefly the main 
thought which underlies all the teaching 
of the Sermon on the Mount. 

Here we read, " Moses of old said 
to you, ye shall not kill, but I say to 
you that every one who is angry with 
his brother shall be in danger of the 
judgment." Jesus had said, " I am 
come not to destroy but to fulfil " the 
old law — to interpret its deeper truth, 
to trace it back to its real spiritual 
meaning. The sin of murder, he says, 
56 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

lies not in the overt act, but in the dis- 
cordant thought of anger, from which 
all murder proceeds. He that is angry 
with his brother has already committed 
the sin. Once again, " Ye have heard 
that it was said, Thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery, but I say unto you that 
every man that looketh on a woman to 
lust after her hath committed sin." 
The act itself, according to Moses, was 
the crime ; Jesus presses the impure act 
back to its real source in impure think- 
ing. The sin lies in the mind that 
harbours adulterous thoughts. Banish 
all such thoughts, and you have abol- 
ished the cause of the sin. 

Again He says, " Ye have been 
taught, an eye for an eye and a tooth 
for a tooth, but I say unto you, resist 
not evil." This passage has been the 
cornerstone of the religious philosophy 
of Count Leo Tolstoi, and Christian 
men have called him a visionary, or 

57 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

insane, for taking these words literally. 
What does Jesus mean by " Resist not 
evil," except this: that merely to con- 
tend against evil is to accentuate that 
evil; the method is negative; it is 
useless. We are to " overcome evil 
with good," to fill the heart with a new 
affection, to inspire the bad individual 
or the evil society with a new spirit. 
This method is positive; it will suc- 
ceed. It is just as absurd to contend 
against evil as it would be to struggle 
against the darkness in the room; 
throw open the curtains and let in the 
light, and the darkness disappears of 
itself. We are learning from the con- 
sideration of the newer psychological 
principles the same truth; that every 
time we fight against evil, we are only 
emphasizing that evil. Let a minister 
preach against some immoral book, and 
everybody rushes off post haste to buy 
the book; or let him denounce a lewd 

58 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

play and the theatre is crowded for 
weeks to come. If you have a boy with 
a tendency to prevarication, just keep 
telling him over and over again that he 
cannot tell the truth, that he does not 
know the truth when he sees it, and 
you are making him a more pronounced 
liar than ever. 

Jesus and the New Psychology are 
at one in telling us that the true method 
of eradicating evil is to forget all about 
the evil, whether in the child, in the 
book, or in society, and earnestly seek 
to foster the opposite of the evil. Do 
not denounce vices, but preach the 
virtues. Emphasize in the child's life 
the beauty and nobility of truth and 
sincerity. Forget, as far as he is con- 
cerned, all his weaknesses, and keep 
constantly before him the great ideals. 
For nineteen hundred years the world, 
and for the most part the Church, have 
been following the negative method 

59 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

of dealing with evil. We have said that 
Jesus was an idealist, and His words 
impractical. In the light of modern 
psychology we are coming to realize the 
profound philosophy underlying these 
words. But the time is coming when 
we will be wise enough to follow the 
positive method of Jesus, both in deal- 
ing with evil in ourselves and in so- 
ciety, and when that day dawns, evil 
will disappear. : ' Resist not evil; but 
overcome evil with good." 

Here is another of the axioms of 
Jesus, " Judge not, that ye be not 
judged; " or, literally translated, " Con- 
demn not." The word is much stronger 
than our word to " judge," or to pass 
judgment upon; it means to condemn 
harshly or bitterly. " Condemn not, 
that ye be not condemned, for with 
what condemnation ye condemn, ye 
shall be condemned." Do not these 
words take on a new meaning in the 

60 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

light of modern thought ? Shall a 
man carry in his mind the discordant 
thoughts of condemnation or harsh 
criticism? The condemnatory spirit 
has been back of all wars between 
nations ; it has been the cause of every 
quarrel and misunderstanding; when 
men have held condemnatory thoughts 
towards others and gone forth in that 
spirit, inevitably such discordant think- 
ing has yielded its brood of pesti- 
lential results. Whether it be in the 
form of violence, inflicting bodily in- 
jury, or in the form of malicious slander, 
unkind criticism or petty gossip, never- 
theless the sin committed and the injury 
wrought to others must be traced back 
to the condemnatory thoughts. 

" Do not condemn people harshly," 
says Jesus, " because when you do, the 
same condemnation you make on 
others, will in turn be made upon you." 
What is tbis but His way of stating the 

61 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

psychological law, " Your own will 
come to you ? " Just as sure as the 
sun will rise to-morrow morning, if 
you hold bitter and hateful thoughts 
of others, they will hold bitter and hate- 
ful thoughts of you; and if you hold 
kind and helpful thoughts of others, 
they will inevitably hold kind and help- 
ful thoughts of you. " Like breeds 
like," is a law of mind as well as body. 
If others do not love you, it is because 
you do not love them. Psychology 
explains through telepathic principles 
the profound meaning of this axiomatic 
statement of Jesus. 

" Take no anxious thought for the 
morrow," says Jesus. Men have said 
many times that it is impossible to 
obey this plain command. How can 
we live in the midst of this busy life 
of ours, beset by cares of every kind, 
and yet take no anxious thought for 
the morrow ? And yet Jesift does not 
62 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

stand alone, but the scientific physician 
is telling us that the great cause of 
physical and nervous breakdown so 
prevalent in our age, a large if not the 
chief factor in disease of every kind, 
is found in these twin evils, — fear and 
worry, — and unless we can learn to 
master our worries we will become a 
race of weaklings. Jesus does not 
state the psychology underlying His 
words. It has been left for modern 
thought to discover their scientific basis, 
in the inevitable influence of mental 
conditions on the body. 

In the Beatitudes which occur at 
the beginning of the Sermon on the 
Mount, — Blessed are the poor in Spirit, 
Blessed are the meek, Blessed are they 
that hunger and thirst, Blessed are the 
merciful, Blessed is the peacemaker, 
— Jesus is again pointing out that the 
way to true happiness lies in the inner 
mental disposition or mental attitude 
63 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

of the individual. He says, upon your 
real thoughts depends your blessedness ; 
if you are humble in mind, if you are 
meek and merciful and a peacemaker, 
if in your mental disposition you are 
hungry and thirsty for righteousness, 
then you shall know the meaning of 
" blessedness." 

The climax of the Beatitudes is 
reached when He says, " Blessed are 
the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God." What is it to be " pure in 
heart " but to exclude every impure or 
discordant thought ? And they who 
have attained to this have already 
the Kingdom within them, and perceive 
God immediately and intuitively. 

Jesus' teaching in regard to for- 
giveness illustrates the same truth. The 
word " forgive " really means to let go, 
to cast away, to put out of the mind 
absolutely. Jesus would have us " for- 
give as we would be forgiven." There 

64 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

is no one who seeks forgiveness for 
some wrong done but desires the person 
wronged to forgive, in this sense of 
putting it out of mind and forgetting 
it absolutely. This is what we seek in 
forgiveness. And Jesus said, If you 
want to be forgiven in this way, you 
must forgive in the same way. Forgive- 
ness is not an external tangible thing; 
it is purely a mental act. It belongs to 
the inner life; to forgive another in 
any true sense means to cast out the 
unforgiving or discordant thought from 
the mind forever. If we seek that kind 
of forgiveness from others, — and who 
of us does not ? — the only way to 
obtain it is by cleansing the mind of all 
save thoughts of love. 

In the Golden Rule is summed up 
all the ethical and spiritual teachings 
of Jesus. "As ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye also to them 
likewise." This does not refer merely 

65 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

to physical injury that we hope to 
escape at the hands of our fellows. 
That is to apply it merely to the lower 
physical plane. But in the whole range 
of human relationship, said Jesus, if 
you want other people to think kindly, 
and respectfully, and lovingly and help- 
fully of you, then hold the same 
thoughts of them. In our deeper 
selves we all desire to be well thought 
of, we want people to think kindly of 
us, we want to be regarded as incapable 
of mean or low actions. This is the 
deep instinctive craving of every one. 
If each one should avoid discordant 
thinking about all others, as he would 
have others avoid it about himself, it 
would terminate all discordant or er- 
roneous thinking of every kind, and as 
a result all discordant conduct would 
be ended. 

In these teachings of the Sermon on 
the Mount, which is admitted to be 

66 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

the declaration by Jesus of His funda- 
mental ethical and spiritual teachings, 
He has selected certain sins which are 
typical of all forms of sin or selfishness, 
and in every instance he traces the 
wrong back to the thought, to the men- 
tal attitude of the individual. Could 
any teaching be more modern or more 
truly scientific ? 

These truths have always been in 
the Bible, but what we need to see 
is that the newer thinking of to-day 
has helped us immensely in the inter- 
pretation of the teachings of Jesus, 
and in their application to life and 
character. Jesus uttered these words 
nineteen hundred years ago, but it 
has remained for the newer thought, 
both scientific and religious , of our own 
day, to reveal to us their profounder 
meaning. In His teaching He is in 
exact accord with the best and latest 
teaching of science on the whole sub- 

67 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

ject of character-building. In a word, 
science tells us to-day that character, 
happiness, success, in the truest sense, 
depend upon two things — right think- 
ing and right living, and this is the 
essential message of Jesus in the Sermon 
on the Mount. 

A lawyer asked Him the tremen- 
dously pertinent question, " Master, 
what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " 
It is not a speculative question; it 
is intensely personal and practical, 
dealing with the supreme thing in re- 
ligion; and Jesus replied, " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, with all thy soul, with all thy 
mind and with all thy strength, and 
thy neighbour as thyself." 

In this reply of Jesus is contained the 
secret of the religious life. God is ab- 
solute Good, God is Truth, God is 
Love. When a man loves Goodness 
with all his being; when he loves Truth 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

until he is willing to make any sacrifice 
for the sake of Truth; when he loves 
Love, until Love becomes the control- 
ling principle of life, there will be no 
room left in the mind for inharmonious 
thoughts, from whence proceed all 
forms of evil. 

If you can conceive of one filling 
his mind full of love for God and his 
fellow-men, have you not reached the 
only possible conception of a perfect 
life ? There can be no place in such a 
life for wrong doing. If every wrong 
act must proceed from its parent- 
thought back in the mind, then when the 
mind is full of this love, neither im- 
perfection nor discord can enter; then 
and not until then shall we be wholly 
saved. This is as sound psychology 
as it is true Christianity. 

Jesus reached the great climax of 
His doctrine of Love when He said, 
:< It has been said, Thou shalt love thy 

69 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

neighbour and hate thine enemy, but 
I say unto you, love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them that 
despitefully use you and persecute 
you; that ye may be the children of 
your Father which is in Heaven." 

Here is the real test and the hardest 
of all, as to the degree of love in our 
lives. If we can forgive our enemies, 
we can love everybody. That is why 
Jesus places the ideal so high. He 
knows that when a man reaches the 
point where he can love even his ene- 
mies, then his life will be completely 
under the domination of love. All 
forms of hate are discord. Love is 
perfect harmony. Love and hate can- 
not both occupy the same mind at the 
same time. The exclusion of hate is 
the preparation for love, and the enter- 
tainment of love means the exclusion 
of hate. This supreme demand of 

70 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

Jesus also stands on a distinctly scien- 
tific basis. 

Let me leave out the intervening 
clauses, and read the argument and 
conclusion which Jesus draws, " Love 
your enemies, that ye may be the chil- 
dren of your Father who is in heaven; 
ye therefore shall be perfect, even as 
your Heavenly Father is perfect." I 
wonder if we realize the tremendous 
significance of these words. " Love 
your enemies in order that you may 
become the children of your Father 
in Heaven." Then notice, He does 
not command us to be perfect as God 
is perfect; He puts it in the form of a 
prediction: " Ye therefore, because 
love is supreme in your lives, shall 
be perfect even as your Father who is 
in Heaven is perfect." This is the 
sublimest utterance that ever fell on 
human ears. Men have always turned 
their yearning gaze towards perfection. 

71 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

But perfection has been a dizzy height 
for man to contemplate. No scientist, 
no philosopher, no ethical teacher has 
ever dared to more than hint at the 
possibility of man's attaining to per- 
fection. Jesus taught it. He does not 
command it; He promises it, if only 
man fills his mind and heart with love. 
There is no external devil forever 
seeking to keep us down and drive us 
back; that theory belongs to the 
superstition of childhood. There is 
no Prince of Evil roaming through the 
earth, invisible in form, seeking to pre- 
vent us from attaining the completion 
and perfection of our manhood and 
womanhood. Jesus points out the 
way, and modern thought explains 
the philosophy of it, whereby any man 
may make sure and steady progress 
towards perfection. Drive out the 
discordant thoughts, says Jesus, and 
fill the mind with love, — love for God 

72 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

and love for man, — and then the only 
causes of all evil will be banished from 
your life, " Then ye shall be children 
of your Father in Heaven, and ye shall 
be perfect, even as your Heavenly 
Father is perfect." 

We have not yet begun to understand 
how vital and practical — yes, and 
simple, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
It does not consist in metaphysical 
subtleties, in theological abstractions, 
or in ecclesiastical requirements. I 
have brought you face to face with 
Jesus, and in the presence of His teach- 
ings corroborated by science, I dare 
to affirm that we can become like Him, 
and that our likeness to Him will ap- 
pear in just the degree that we learn 
how to substitute for all discordant 
thinking the God-like thoughts of love. 

It is a common-place truism to say 
that religion is in a state of transition. 
We have been told that many times. 

73 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

There are many who feel that religion 
is decaying, that faith is on the wane. 
In reality, religion is but disintegrating 
many of the old forms of faith, in prep- 
aration for a new and higher form of 
integration. If you compare the close 
of the eighteenth century with the close 
of the nineteenth, you will see the tre- 
mendous gain for faith. The old 
shallow scepticism, the cheap and vul- 
gar infidelity which characterized the 
close of the eighteenth century, is no 
longer possible for man, and we do not 
find it expressed to-day either from 
platform or in literature. All the de- 
structive work of the last century, — 
Biblical criticism, the historical study 
of Christian institutions, the conflict 
of modern science with theology, the 
study of comparative religions, the 
tremendous revealing power of the 
new social movements, — all of these, 
while destroying many traditional forms 

74 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

of faith, have but cleared away much 
that has been outgrown, and have been 
preparing the way for a renaissance 
— a new birth of faith and hope and 
love, which constitute the abiding es- 
sentials of religion. Within the Church 
and without, the living spiritual life is 
demanding some new form of expres- 
sion; and it will find it, yea, it is finding 
it. The deep consciousness of the in- 
dwelling God is being recognized and 
realized as it never has been in the 
past. A rebirth of religion is taking 
place in our midst. You cannot inter- 
pret present movements of thought and 
activity in any other way. When we 
think of the spiritual power and the 
moral earnestness existing outside the 
Church to-day, when we remember 
the ever increasing literature, dealing 
specifically with spiritual problems, and 
furnishing spiritual nourishment and 
inspiration to multitudes, what is the 

75 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

significance of it all, unless as Tenny- 
son explains it; 

" Our little systems have their day, 

They have their day and cease to be ; 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 

And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 

Within the Church and without, 
this renewal of religion consists in a 
return to the Founder of Christianity, 
a setting aside of traditional creeds, 
and an honest, earnest attempt to 
find out what He taught and the things 
for which He stood. 

A new discovery of Jesus is taking 
place in our age, whether we realize 
it or not. The old theological Christ 
may be disappearing, but the divinely 
human Jesus is re-appearing. It is 
not that we regard Jesus as being any 
less the Son of God, but we regard Him 
as being vastly more the Son of Man. 
We think of His life as the norm, the 

76 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

type, the example, the real inspiration 
for the life of every individual. What 
He did, we believe through the in- 
dwelling God we can accomplish; we 
cannot read His message without com- 
ing to feel that He expected that we 
should become like Him, and live His 
kind of life, and complete His work 
in the world. 

It is this rediscovery of Jesus that is 
preparing the way for the new birth 
of Christianity. It is no new religion 
that is coming; it is rather a new and 
more spiritual conception of the pro- 
found religion of Jesus, as He taught 
and lived it. 

Let us rejoice in every ray of light 
that has come from the new thinking 
of our age, in all its phases; let us 
be glad for the revelations made by the 
newer psychology, if for nothing else, 
because they have helped us to more 
truly interpret Him, and more practi- 

77 



THE REDISCOVERY OF JESUS 

cally apply His teachings. As we walk 
in the light that has coine, and in the 
new light still to shine; as we who pro- 
fess to be followers of Him, and we who 
at least are interested in hearing about 
Him, and learning what He taught — 
as we all earnestly and honestly strive 
to know the truth in order that we may 
live the truth, we shall be led out into 
the life of the Spirit ; and if His proph- 
ecy means anything at all, we shall at 
length become " perfect even as He is 
perfect." 



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